Predictors of Adolescents' Intentions to Smoke: Age, Sex, Race, and Regional Differences

Abstract

The present study investigated the predictors of smoking intentions among subgroups of adolescent nonsmokers, examining age, sex, ethnic, and regional differences. Both proximal factors specific to smoking and more general, distal factors were successful predictors of intentions to smoke. The similarities in prediction outweighed the differences between demographic subgroups. There were three demographic differences: (1) peer and family smoking levels were more important in predicting intentions for girls than boys; (2) smoking initiation was more of a way of adopting deviant or problem behavior for midwestern than for southwestern subjects; (3) familial smoking models were more related to the intentions of midwestern than southwestern subjects. The theoretical significance of these results and their practical implications for smoking prevention are discussed.