This study examined developmental influences of beliefs and attitudes on adolescents' smoking. A national sample (N = 6,900) of adolescents ages 14 to 18 was selected. Data included measures of smoking behavior, beliefs, and attitudes. Although odds ratios show that attitudes and beliefs are predictive of adolescents' smoking status across the ages of 14 to 18 years, no systematic change of the prediction is evident, which contrasts with the psychological developmental model.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AdelsonJ. (1980) Handbook of adolescent psychology. New York: Wiley.
2.
AjzenI.FishbeinM. (1980) Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
3.
FishbeinM. (1977) Consumer beliefs and behavior with respect to cigarette smoking: A critical analysis of the public literature. In Federal Trade Commission Report to Congress: Pursuant to the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, for the year 1976. Washington, DC. U.S. Government Printing Office.
MossA. J.AllenK. F.GiovinoG. G.MillsS. M. (1992) Recent trends in adolescent smoking, smoking-uptake correlates, and expectations about the future. Advance Data, 221, 1–27.
6.
ParcelG. S.MeyerM. P. (1978) Development of an instrument to measure children's health locus of control. Health Education Monographs, 6, 149–159.
7.
PedersonL. L. (1986) Change in variables related to smoking from childhood to late adolescence: An eight-year longitudinal study of a cohort of elementary school students. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 77 (Suppl. 1), 33–39.
8.
PedersonL. L.LefcoeN. M. (1987) Short- and long-term prediction of self-reported cigarette smoking in a cohort of late adolescents: Report of an 8-year follow-up of public school students. Preventive Medicine, 16, 432–447.
9.
SAS Institute, Inc. (1990) SAS/STAT user's guide. Version 6. Cary, NC: Author.
