Assessing demographic differences in decisional balance for smoking prevention and temptations to try smoking among adolescent subgroups.

Introduction: Cigarette smoking initiation remains prevalent in adolescence. Effective prevention methods are needed to dissuade this behavior. Demographic factors are identified as important risk factors in the developmental nature of smoking in adolescence. The current study investigates potential demographic differences for two new trans-theoretical model measures, the Decisional Balance Inventory (pros and cons) for Smoking Prevention and the Temptations to Try Smoking Scale.

Methods: A sample of 6th grade Rhode Island students from 20 middle schools (N = 4151) who were participating in a longitudinal and computer-delivered intervention for substance abuse prevention was assessed on these measures at baseline. Three MANOVA tests were conducted to assess the impact of race (White vs. Non-White), ethnicity (Hispanic vs. Non-Hispanic) and gender (male vs female).

Results: Significant effects for race and ethnicity were found for Decisional Balance and Temptations to Try Smoking. For race, Whites reported lesser pros (p <.0001) and Non-Whites reported higher cons (p <.0001) and temptations to try smoking (p <.0001). Differences for ethnicity showed that Hispanics were higher on pros (p <.0001) and temptations to try smoking (p <.0001) than Non-Hispanics. Non-Hispanics reported higher cons (p <.0001). Gender differences were noted only for temptations to try smoking, and showed females were higher on this construct than males (p <.0001). The effect sizes were .01 or below.

Conclusions: The results did not demonstrate a strong association between these demographics and constructs, suggesting that tailored prevention methods based solely on these factors may not dissuade smoking in this group.