SMOKING OUTCOME EXPECTANCIES - FACTOR STRUCTURE, PREDICTIVE-VALIDITY,AND DISCRIMINANT VALIDITY

Recent models of addiction posit that drug outcome expectancies are in fluential determinants of drug use. The current research examines the dimensional structure, predictive validity, and discriminant validity of expectancies for cigarette smoking in a prospective study. There wa s a good fit between the factor structure of the Smoking Consequences Questionnaire and the observed data. In addition, the internal consist ency of each scale was satisfactory. Moreover, there was considerable evidence for the predictive and discriminant validity of expectancies. Expectancies of positive outcomes (positive reinforcement, negative r einforcement, and appetite-weight control) predicted withdrawal severi ty. Negative reinforcement expectancies and expectancies of negative c onsequences predicted cessation success. Predictive relations remained significant after controlling for related constructs: negative affect , stress, and dependence measures.