The reliability and validity of the Temptations to Try Smoking Scale in a group of Chinese adolescents

Abstract

Objective To provide a scientifc tool, the Temptations to Try Smoking Scale (TTSS) is introduced to evaluate its reliability and validity in preventing and intervening Chinese adolescents from smoking temptations. Methods A questionnaire, including the TTSS, the Chinese version of the Decisional Balance Scale (CDBS), the Adolescent Smoking Curiosity Scale (ASCOS), and the Sensation-Seeking Scale (SSS), is used to test 1195 Chinese adolescent volunteers (214 of them are retested after 1 month). If all six items in the TTSS are retained, the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) reveals that the TTSS exhibits a structure of two factors: positive social and curiosity/stress. Results The confrmatory factor analysis (CFA) shows that the two-factor model of the TTSS has the ftting indices χ2/df = 2.35, RMSEA = 0.06, and CFI = 0.99, which are better than those of its single-factor model. The total scores of the TTSS, positive social, and curiosity/stress are positively correlated with the scores of Pros, ASCOS, TAS, and Dis of SSS but negatively correlated with the Cons, hereby exhibiting good criterion-related validity. The internal consistency coefcient of the TTSS is 0.89, and the retest reliability is 0.90. Conclusion Therefore, the TTSS has good reliability and validity for Chinese adolescents and can be used as an efective tool to evaluate adolescents’ smoking temptations in China.