Measuring constructs of Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) regarding cigarette use among adolescents

Background: Many adult smokers initiate the smoking habit during adolescence or as young adults. So prevention of cigarette use among adolescents has been recognized as an important public health priority around worldwide.  The purpose of this study was to measure Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) constructs regarding Cigarette use among the adolescents.

Methods: This study was a cross-sectional one which was conducted on 215 adolescent (high school) students aged 14-19 in the city of Zarandieh. Data were gathered by a self-administered questionnaire that was constructed based on a literature review of research on smoking and on the TPB. Independent T-Test and logistic regression were employed to analyze the data.

  Results: 14.41% of the subjects were smokers. The TPB components (Attitude, subjective norms, outcome expectancies and perceived behavioral control) and variables like smoking friends, smoking family accounted for 42.7% of the variance in intentions. Significant differences were detected between smokers and non-smokers regarding means of score of all the variables TPB (p<0.001).

Conclusion: The results indicate that the TPB is an effective model for predicting lifetime cigarette use among adolescents; these findings may contribute to the development of tailored interventions for the prevention of smoking among adolescents.