ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the perceived costs and benefits of cigarette use and their relationship to future intentions to smoke. One likely reason for the situation is that researchers lack a comprehensive understanding of the consequences of smoking as perceived by youngsters in the age ranges generally targeted for intervention and of how such perceptions enter into the dynamics of decisionmaking. The source of benefits was related to need instrumentality, specifically the degree to which smoking is seen by children as an effective means for attaining a sense of maturity, autonomy, and belonging. Smoking can unleash a host of negative emotions. There are feelings of anxiety over parental reactions to one’s smoking, including fear of possible punishment. The responsibility variable and the eight smoking consequence variables were entered into a hierarchical multiple regression analysis as predictors of intentions to smoke.
