Psychometric Properties of the Decisional Balance Scale and the Temptations to Try Smoking Inventory in Adolescents

In recent years, concern about rising rates of smoking among youth has prompted researchers to study the process of smoking initiation. One of several theoretical frameworks that has been used to study this problem is the Transtheoretical Model of Change (TTM). Using cross-sectional data from a multi-ethnic cohort of 5th, 8th, and 12th grade students, we examined the psychometric properties of two TTM scales: the Decisional Balance Scale (DBS) and Temptations to Try Smoking Inventory (TTSI). Nonlinear principal components analysis resulted in a two-component solution for the 12-item DBS (“cons of smoking” and “pros of smoking”) accounting for 62.2% of the variance and a single-component solution for the 15-item TTSI that accounted for 63.7% of the variance. Cronbach a estimates of internal consistency for the cons of smoking, pros of smoking, and TTSI were 0.86, 0.77, and 0.94, respectively. Concurrent validity for the scales was evidenced by a steady increase in the TTSI and pros of smoking scores and a steady decrease in cons of smoking scores when comparing more naive smoking statuses with more experienced smokers.