From determinants of smoking behaviour to the implications for a prevention programme

This paper is a report of a study in which motives and factors that predict smoking in Dutch children (10–15 years) are analysed by applying the Fishbein and Ajzen model (1975). The results indicate that non-smokers connect smoking more firmly with health hazards, personal hazards and harm to the environment. Smokers recognize these consequences but play down their importance, associating more advantages with smoking. Non-smokers often regard these effects as detrimental. Long-term consequences are more closely associated with regular smoking, while short-term effects are more closely linked with initial smoking. Non-smokers experience more social pressure not to smoke than do smokers.Smokers experience pressure to smoke by friends and classmates.The subjective norm is less negative towards initial smoking than towards regular smoking.Some social situations seen to hold a special attraction for the both smokers and non-smokers.The implications of the results for the development of a prevention programme are indicated.