Psychosocial Predictors of Smoking Recidivism

A prospective analysis was undertaken in an attempt to discover possible predictors of cigarette smoking recidivism. Former cigarette smokers interviewed in 1964 were reinterviewed in 1966. In the two year interim approximately 13 per cent had returned to smoking cigarettes. Recidivism was examined as a function of selected demographic, environmental, behavioral, and attitudinal variables. Univariate and multivariate analyses of the data were performed. A stepwise multiple discriminant analysis revealed that a set of three variables was highly effective in predicting recidivism.