IngentaConnect Assessing attitudinal ambivalence towards smoking and its associa...

Authors: Lipkus, Isaac M.¹; Pollak, Kathryn I.¹; McBride, Colleen M.¹; Schwartz-Bloom, Rochelle¹; Lyna, Pauline¹; Bloom, Paul N.²

Source: Psychology and Health, Volume 20, Number 3, June 2005 , pp. 373-387(15)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

Abstract:

Most smokers have some conflicting thoughts and feelings about their smoking; that is, they feel ambivalent. Whether felt ambivalence can be adequately measured and then used to predict the desire to quit among teen smokers has yet to be explored. Hence, among 402 teen smokers involved in a smoking cessation intervention, we first examined the psychometric properties of an eight-item ambivalence scale via exploratory and confirmatory analyses. After excluding one item, the scale was internally consistent and formed a single factor. We also report on whether felt ambivalence towards smoking assessed at baseline and at four and eight months post-baseline was related to the desire to quit in cross-sectional and prospective analyses. In all cross-sectional and prospective analyses, smokers who felt increasingly ambivalent reported a stronger desire to quit. These results suggest that ambivalence might be a useful construct to explore further and experimentally induce to assess its effects on desire to quit.

Keywords: Attitudes; ambivalence; smoking; adolescents

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1080/08870440512331333988

Affiliations: 1: Department of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center 2: School of Business, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

The full text electronic article is available for purchase. You will be able to download the full text electronic article after payment.

$45.29 plus tax Refund Policy

Assessing attitudinal ambivalence towards smoking and its association with desire to quit among teen smokers