title: Subtypes within the precontemplation stage of adolescent smoking acquisition.
abstract: The present study examined the existence of three possible subtypes within the precontemplation stage of smoking acquisition: committers, immotives, and progressives. The sample of the study included young people from six European countries (mean age = 13 years) who had never smoked regularly (n = 21 535). A cross-sectional design was used to assess cognitive determinants of smoking behavior: attitudes towards smoking, perceived social influences, and self-efficacy to remain a nonsmoker. Adolescents within the various stages of smoking acquisition were compared with regard to standardized T scores on these risk factors. The results showed that adolescents in the three subgroups of precontemplation differed from each other on every cognitive determinant tested, revealing a higher risk to start smoking among progressives than among immotives. Immotives revealed a higher risk to start smoking than committers. It is concluded that the use of subtypes within acquisition precontemplation in research on adolescent smoking may be a promising tool for investigating the initiation continuum and for improving the quality of both the implementation and evaluation of prevention programs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Education and Health Promotion, Maastricht University, Netherlands. s.kremers@gvo.unimaas.nl
authors.forename: S P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Kremers
authors.forename: A N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Mudde
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: de Vries
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D011446:Prospective Studies; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires