Smoking Susceptibility and Anti-Smoking Awareness in Adolescents and Young Adults of Bangladesh

Objective The present study addressed the shortcomings of strictly defined criterion and survey-based approaches of previous smoking susceptibility measures and accordingly, developed and validated two scales, Smoking Susceptibility Measure (SSM) and Anti-Smoking Awareness Scale (ASAS). Methods Firstly, the generation of SSM and ASAS items followed an extensive literature review, expert opinions and agreement, resulting in the retention of eight items for SSM and seven items for ASAS to administer them on a large sample (n=312). Average inter-item correlations, corrected item-total correlations, and internal consistency reliabilities of the measures fall within the recommended ranges. The data were found suitable to factorize the sample through exploratory factor analysis. To determine the structural validity of the measures, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was done, and the data had an adequate model fit for unifactorial solution. Multi-group CFA revealed that both measures can be applied in the same way across age and sex of the participants. Results An inverse association of school connectedness with smoking susceptibility and positive association with anti-smoking awareness reflected the convergent validity of the measures. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that smoking susceptivity was negatively predicted by anti-smoking awareness and school connectedness whereas, positively predicted by self-esteem of the participants. Conclusion The SSM and ASAS were found to be psychometrically sound tools to objectively measure never-smoking youths’ smoking susceptibility and anti-smoking awareness, targeting effective intervention strategies to prevent adolescents and young adults from being a regular smoker.