title: A new measure of smoking initiation and progression among adolescents.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To develop a new measure of smoking initiation and progression among adolescents.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study used data from 2504 regular and alternative high school students to evaluate the psychometric properties of a new 3-item, 5-stage measure of smoking initiation and progression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The categorization method showed good 4-week test-retest reliability (.83 among boys and .87 among girls). The demographic distribution of adolescents into stages was consistent with previous research.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This 5-stage classification method could be a useful framework for describing variation along the smoking up-take and progression continuum.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Health Promotion & Disease Prevention Research, and Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Alhambra 91803, USA. sping@usc.edu
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Jennifer B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Unger
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sussman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D017668:Age of Onset; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D015995:Prevalence; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*