Adopting the stage model for smoking acquistion in Japanese adolescents

The purpose of the present study was to apply the stages of change model to smoking acquisition in Japanese adolescents. The participants were 556 sen ior and 1002 junior high school students who responded anonymously to the q uestionnaire. The findings of this study confirm that the stage model is in deed applicable to smoking acquisition in Japanese adolescents. It was clea rly seen that the process involves four stages: pre-contemplation, contempl ation, preparation, and action. Furthermore, the results showed that measur es of self-efficacy decreased, while temptation increased from precontempla tion to action stages. The pros of smoking behavior increased toward action stage, while the cons decreased.