Smoking Consequences Questionnaire: Factor Structure and Invariance among Smokers and Non-Smokers

Abstract

Background. The Smoking Consequences Questionnaire was developed to assess smoking expectancies, which have been found to be linked to the initiation and maintenance of smoking. Objectives. The purpose of the current study was to examine the factor structure of a modified brief version of the instrument in Greek and to test its invariance between groups of smokers and nonsmokers. Methods. Participants were 813 Greek-Cypriot university students (524 females; Mean age =20.94, SD = 2.70) who completed this brief version of the instrument translated into Greek using the forward-backward method. Results. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a four-factor structure: Negative Consequences, Positive Reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement and Appetite/Weight Control. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis indicated configural, metric and partial scalar invariance of the instrument in groups of smokers and nonsmokers. Comparison of the mean difference in the invariant factors showed significant difference in appetite/weight control mean scores, whereas mean difference in negative consequences was not significant. Conclusions/Importance. Findings support the four-factor structure of the brief Greek version of the SCQ in a sample of young adults, and factorial invariance between smokers and nonsmokers. More expectancies about appetite/weight control among smokers compared to nonsmokers suggest focusing on this category of smoking expectancies in smoking prevention and cessation programs.

Keywords:

• Smoking expectancies
• factor structure
• smokers
• nonsmokers
• smoking status invariance

Declaration of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.