NCJ Number
215391
Journal
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 35 Issue: 4 Dated: August 2006 Pages: 551-562
Date Published
August 2006
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study examined how adolescents’ perceptions of exposure to smoker role models related to their intentions to smoke, both directly and indirectly through attitudes, norms and behavioral control.
Abstract
Evidence indicates that smoking behavior of role models is related to adolescents’ intention to smoke, and this relationship is partly mediated by intrapersonal factors such as attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control regarding smoking. The findings imply that the smoking behavior of role models is important in the study of adolescents’ intentions to smoke and smoking behavior and the association between these concepts could be studied using a combination of concepts from different social cognitive models. Cigarette smoking among adolescents has been found to be a major public health concern. While early studies have suggested different theoretical concepts in the prediction of adolescents’ intention to smoke, most of the studies have not integrated these concepts. However, this study was designed to bring together concepts of social cognitive theory (emphasizing modeling) and the theory of planned behavior (attitudes, norms, and perceived behavioral control) to examine factors that influenced adolescents’ intention to smoke. It examined the direct (modeling) and indirect relationships between model smoking and intention to smoke among adolescent smokers and nonsmokers, suggesting that these relationships would be in the same direction for both groups. The study sample was drawn from a population of 15 year old students in Norway in 1997. Tables, figures, and references