Dg. Byrne et al., PSYCHOSOCIAL CORRELATES OF ADOLESCENT CIGARETTE-SMOKING - PERSONALITYOR ENVIRONMENT, Australian journal of psychology, 45(2), 1993, pp. 87-95
Adolescent cigarette smoking is a problem of increasing magnitude in t
he Australian population, and programs based on psychological strategi
es designed to prevent the onset of smoking among adolescents have bee
n universally disappointing in their capacity to achieve this outcome.
Much of the blame for this may be attributed to a failure to comprehe
nsively understand the psychosocial factors leading to the discretiona
ry human behaviour of smoking. This study investigated a combination o
f such psychosocial factors in relation both to present adolescent smo
king behaviour and to future intentions of adolescents to smoke. Data
were collected from a large and representative sample of Australian ad
olescents attending high schools and secondary colleges in three Austr
alian cities. The findings suggest that social context is a stronger c
orrelate of both present and future intended adolescent smoking than i
s personality, though there are sex differences in the data which caut
ion against the view that a single set of psychosocial variables is un
iversally associated with smoking behaviour in all adolescents. Moreov
er, the data suggest that self-reported future intention to smoke is a
n unreliable indicator of smoking behaviour in the future. The results
are discussed with particular reference to their potential to guide p
sychological strategies for adolescent smoking prevention.