The Utilization of Attitudes and Beliefs as Indicators of Future Smoking Behavior

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess if the initial attitudes and beliefs of a behaviorally homogeneous group can be utilized as indicators of future smoking behavior. The students included were those seventh graders who classified themselves as never smokers on the initial survey in 1966 and who participated in all three surveys over the two year period. A total of 1228 females and 868 males met these criteria. This represented a 68 per cent retention rate over the study period. Data were treated by sex. In 1968 subjects classified themselves according to their present smoking behavior as either a smoker, ex-smoker or never smoker. Using these three groups, an analysis of variance technique was employed to assess if initial attitude-belief differences existed between the three subsequent behavioral groupings. For the original never smoker seventh grade females, initial attitude-belief mean difference scores were found on the pleasure and exemplar factors. Never smokers who remained never smokers exhibited more unfavorable attitudes and beliefs toward smoking than those who became smokers or ex-smokers. Significant differences for male data were found on the pleasure, influence, and health and disease factors. Again, initial never smokers who maintained their behavior exhibited more unfavorable attitudes and beliefs with regard to smoking than those who became smokers or ex-smokers. These results suggest that attitudes and beliefs of initial never smokers may serve as indicators of future behavior. It appears that items of an affective rather than a cognitive domain were more useful indicators. However, the complexity of the influencing factors of a smoking or non-smoking behavior is manifested, with the exception of the pleasure factor, by the existence of different factors being significant for different sexes at the same grade level.