title: Pros and cons of quitting, self-efficacy, and the stages of change in smoking cessation.
abstract: In The Netherlands, 34% of the population smoke, and 70% of these smokers are not planning to quit. The lower percentages in the U.S. population seem to reflect a difference in smoking culture. This study analyzes the pros and cons of quitting and self-efficacy expectation in the 5 stages of change in the Dutch population. The results are compared with the pattern of the pros and cons of smoking and self-efficacy expectations found in U.S. samples. The data show the hypothesized pattern: In the first 2 stages, the expected positive outcomes of quitting discriminated better between the stages than self-efficacy, whereas for later stages, self-efficacy was the better discriminator. This study shows that the stage typology is applicable to the Dutch population and that the pattern of the pros, cons, and self-efficacy is very similar to the pattern found in the U.S. populations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Education, University of Limburg, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dijkstra
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: de Vries
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bakker
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000523:psychology*; D016540:Smoking Cessation