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ABSTRACT
Smoking is the biggest threat to public health, and it remains a serious cause of death in the world. It even causes acute and chronic diseases in passive smokers. Remarkably, the age of the onset of cigarette smoking is decreasing. Therefore, it is essential to increase our knowledge concerning the attitudes among adolescents toward cigarette smoking. The present study sought to examine the association among hardiness, emotional intelligence, and attitude toward cigarette smoking in adolescents. The participants comprised of 550 high school students (ages 16 to 19 years, M = 17.1, SD = .93) from Tehran. They completed the Personal Views Survey, Assessing Emotions Scale, and Attitudes Towards Smoking Scale. The structural equation modeling estimated that adolescents with a high ability for hardiness and emotional intelligence were more likely to report negative attitude toward cigarette smoking. The findings showed that hardiness and emotional intelligence were protective factors against smoking in adolescents. Therefore, these findings reinforce the importance of hardiness training and emotional intelligence training in preventing cigarette smoking in adolescents.