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

Mar 27, 2025Psychiatry investigation

Risk of Starting Smoking and Awareness of Its Harms in Bangladeshi Teens and Young Adults

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Abstract

A sample of 312 participants supported the validity of two new measures: (SSM) and (ASAS).

The SSM consists of eight items, while the ASAS contains seven items, both demonstrating adequate internal consistency and reliability.
Exploratory factor analysis confirmed the data's suitability for factorization, and confirmatory factor analysis indicated a good model fit for a unifactorial solution.
School connectedness was inversely associated with smoking susceptibility, suggesting that stronger connections to school may reduce the likelihood of smoking.
Anti-smoking awareness was positively associated with school connectedness, supporting the idea that heightened awareness can promote stronger school ties.
Self-esteem positively predicted smoking susceptibility, indicating a potential risk factor for increased likelihood of smoking among youths.

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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, (SSM) and (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.

Key numbers

0.90

Internal Consistency of

Cronbach’s alpha for the .

0.84

Internal Consistency of

Cronbach’s alpha for the .

6.5%

Variation Explained by Anti-Smoking Awareness

Percentage of variation in smoking susceptibility accounted for by anti-smoking awareness.

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

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