DISPOSITIONAL RISK-FACTORS FOR SMOKING-STAGE TRANSITIONS - A SOCIAL INFLUENCES PROGRAM AS AN EFFECT MODIFIER

A cognitive-developmental model postulates three predominant adolescen t dispositions (self-definition, social compliance, and affect regulat ion) which may impede or facilitate transitions in stages of smoking. The purpose of the present prospective study was to build on the findi ngs supporting this model. One hundred schools were randomly assigned to either receive or not receive a social influences smoking preventio n program. A baseline survey, including smoking behavior and dispositi onal items, was administered in the sixth grade in 1990, interventions were delivered in the sixth and seventh grades, and a survey was admi nistered following the seventh grade intervention. Principal component patterns, based on dispositional items, were very similar for grades 6 and 7, did not vary by gender, and the components (rebelliousness, r ejection of adult authority, personal dissatisfaction, and peer approv al) were correlated. All smoking-stage transitions were positively rel ated to rebelliousness for boys. The relationship of the dispositional scores with smoking-stage transitions was more complex for girls. Rec eiving the program modified the effects of the dispositional risk scor es. particularly for girls.