Reasons for Nondaily Smoking among Young Adults: Scale Development and Validation

Abstract

Introduction: Given the increased rates of nondaily smoking and the lack of validated measures to assess factors related to nondaily smoking, we aimed to develop a measure of reasons for nondaily smoking among young adults. Specifically, we developed a scale assessing reasons or triggers for nondaily smoking and examined its reliability, factor structure, and concurrent validity. Methods: We administered an online survey to 2,000 students at six colleges in the Southeastern US, and 718 (35.9%) returned a completed survey. The current analyses focused on the 95 participants who reported nondaily smoking (i.e., smoking between 1 and 29 days of the past 30 days). In addition to the items created for scale development, measures included socio-demographics, other measures of motivation and confidence/self-efficacy, past smoking/quitting history, readiness to quit, and other psychosocial factors related to smoking. Results: The 19-item Reasons for Nondaily Smoking Scale (RNS) demonstrated an average score of 45.36 (SD = 15.55) and internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha of 0.79). Factor analysis of the items extracted four factors which accounted for 57.4% of score variance: Social influences; Enhancing buzzes and positive affect; Negative affect regulation; and Lack of concern of addiction. Concurrent and discriminant validity were documented. Conclusions: Developing validated measures designed to assess factors associated with nondaily smoking will enhance our ability to address this growing public health concern. The development and validation of the RNS for young adults may be critical in informing our intervention strategies and potentially for effecting or predicting cessation among young adult nondaily smokers.

Expectancies for and use of e-cigarettes and hookah among young adult non-daily smokers

“…The study was cross-sectional, precluding examination of the impact of expectancies on ANTP initiation or progression, or the temporal relationship between ANTP and cigarette use. It is possible the sample was unrepresentative of young adult non-daily smokers due to the recruitment approach, although it was comparable to recent studies in terms of cigarette consumption (Berg, 2014; Schauer, et al, 2014). Finally, because it was not assessed, the extent to which participants used ANTPs labeled as low- or non-nicotine is unknown.…”

Depression Among Non-Daily Smokers Compared to Daily Smokers and Never-Smokers in the United States: An Emerging Problem

“…[41][42][43][44] A prior study suggested that non-daily smokers were less likely than daily smokers to report smoking to relieve negative states 45 while reporting negative affect regulation as a reason for non-daily smoking was associated with greater past-two week depressive symptoms among college students. 46 More research is needed to understand the mechanisms, including affect-regulation processes, underlying the depression-smoking relationship in general and specifically for non-daily smokers. The association between depression and non-daily smoking further suggests a need to learn more about how depression impacts quit outcomes for non-daily smokers since depression has been linked to lower abstinence success in the general smoking population.…”

Depressive symptoms and suicidal behaviours in adolescent non-daily smokers compared to daily smokers and never-smokers in Korea: National cross-sectional study

“…Although our results do not imply that the direction of the relationship and mechanisms supporting the relationship between NDS and mental health is not well established, some hypotheses are supporting the relationship. Berg suggested that negative affect regulations of non-daily smokers were associated with greater depressive symptoms among college students [ 47 ]. It has been also proposed that nicotine may have direct distress relief effects that do not depend on withdrawal-relief, but actually reduce distress from exogenous sources such as depressive symptoms [ 43 ].…”