Development and initial testing of the brief adolescent smoking curiosity scale (ASCOS)

Background Although the reasons behind tobacco smoking at young age are complex, research has identified curiosity as a potent driver of smoking among adolescents. Objective The objective of the current study is to develop and provide initial evidence of reliability and validity of a short scale assessing smoking curiosity among adolescents (first measure of its kind). In particular, we developed and tested the adolescent smoking curiosity scale (ASCOS). Methods After scale development, 101 adolescents completed a survey on smoking-related measures, including ASCOS (June to August 2014). We conducted exploratory factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha calculation to inspect factor-structure and reliability. We conducted multiple linear regression models to examine the scale's capacity to predict antecedents of smoking initiation. Results Factor analysis supported a single-factor structure of smoking curiosity. ASCOS was internally reliable (Cronbach's alpha = 0.83). Controlling for demographics, the measure correlated significantly with temptation to try smoking (β = 0.41, p < 0.01), number of friends who smoke (β = 0.27, p < 0.01), agreeing with the pros of smoking (β = 0.41, p < 0.001), sensation seeking (β = 0.21, p < 0.05), and depression (β = 0.23, p < 0.01). When controlling for a single-item measure for smoking curiosity, ASCOS significantly predicted susceptibility to smoke cigarettes (OR = 3.40, p < 0.05) and cigars (OR = 6.66, p < 0.01). Conclusions ASCOS presented good psychometric properties and passed initial validity-testing through associations with antecedents of smoking. ASCOS was a better predictor of susceptibility to smoke than did a traditional single-item measure used by previous research. As an implication, ASCOS can be crucial to the development of tailored interventions for smoking prevention that can reduce smoking curiosity.