Social Influences on Smoking Initiation: Importance of Distinguishing Descriptive Versus Mediating Process Variables¹

Social psychologists have become increasingly involved in undertaking process analyses concerning health threatening behaviors such as smoking. Certain problems in conducting such process analyses have been identified. Among these are those problems which stem from the failure to distinguish descriptive (e.g., number of smoking peers) from mediating process (e.g., perceived peer pressure) variables. For instructional purposes, the present paper examines this distinction within the context of the process underlying smoking initiation. After presenting these issues conceptually, data obtained from a sample of junior and senior high school students ( n = 395) is used in an attempt to illustrate this distinction and the problems in interpretation that may follow from the failure to make it. Recommendations are made regarding possible solutions.