Online survey of current and former adolescent smokers: An exploration of relationships between exposure to smoking policies, stage of change, self-efficacy, social support network factors and current smoking status

This study investigated adolescents' smoking status (i.e. current or former smoker) and relationships with demographic/background characteristics, exposure to no smoking policies, stage of change, self-efficacy, social support, and history of smoking prevention/cessations classes. The sample of convenience was recruited via social marketing campaign techniques, using e-mail, text messages, and social networking sites. The final sample consisted of 95 participants, while 208 started the online survey, representing a 45.67% completion/response rate. Within the mostly White (80%) sample, 40 (42.1%) were male and 55 (57.9%) were female, being ages 18--25 years (mean age = 22.71, SD = 2.41), while most showed evidence of higher education; 2 (2.1%) had completed a doctoral degree, 21 (22.1%) completed a master's degree, 34 (35.8%) completed a bachelor's degree, and 9 (9.5%) completed an associate degree. Findings showed no significant differences between current (n = 36) and former smokers (n = 54) for exposure to smoking policies, enforcement of policies, or adherence to policies. Current smokers tended to be in a contemplation stage for smoking cessation, while former smokers where in action or maintenance stages for smoking cessation---having stopped smoking anywhere from less than 6 months ago to many years ago. The self-efficacy scale had excellent Cronbach's alpha (.965), and was used to detect significant differences in self-efficacy between groups, former smokers had higher self-efficacy than current smokers (p = .000). Differences in smoking within their social support networks only showed a trend (p = .047). There were no differences between groups for exposure to smoking prevention/cessation classes. A backward stepwise regression model showed that: (1) males were over 11 times more likely to be a current smoker than females (the odds ratio is 11.39); and (2) lower self efficacy was associated with being a current smoker---with an odds ratio less than zero (.147); for every increase in 1 point on the self-efficacy scale, there was a 15% reduction in the odds that the person was a current smoker. Implications for designing smoking prevention/cessation programs are discussed.