Smoking Outcome Expectancies among College Students.

Alcohol expectancies have been found to predict later onset of drinking among adolescents. This study examined whether the relationship between level of alcohol use and expectancies is paralleled with cigarette smoking, and attempted to identify the content of smoking expectancies. An instrument to measure the subjective expected utility of smoking was developed by administering an 80-item questionnaire to 382 undergraduate smokers and exsmokers. A principal components analysis yielded four interpretable factors: negative consequences, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and appetite/weight control. Fifty items with high loadings on these factors were retained to create the four scales of the Smoking Consequences Questionnaire. Coefficient alpha reliabilities, calculated from a separate subject sample, averaged .94. As predicted, the scales were able to differentiate between daily smokers and less frequent smokers. Heavier smokers had more positive expectancies about the effects of smoking, and less negative expectancies. Females had more positive expectancies than males on the appetite/weight control scale. Female exsmokers reported much more positive expectancies than male exsmokers on the negative reinforcement scale, suggesting a possible risk factor for females who quit smoking. (Author/NB)