Development and Validation of Smoking Abstinence Self-efficacy Scale among Iranian Female Adolescents

Among different factors, self-efficacy is one of the most suitable components for predicting smoking behavior among adolescents. Therefore, it is essential to design a native tool to measure this high-risk behavior in adolescents and implement prevention programs in this age group.

This study aimed to design and validate a smoking abstinence self-efficacy questionnaire in female adolescents.

In this methodological study, a comprehensive literature review was conducted, and the available similar questionnaires were used to prepare the items. In total, 351 female schoolchildren were selected by convenience sampling in Mashhad, Iran, between October 2017 and January 2018. Face and content validity and construct validity were applied for psychometric evaluation of the developed tool. The reliability of the tool was tested by internal consistency.

The final version of the smoking abstinence self-efficacy scale in Iranian female adolescents includes 16 items after a psychometric evaluation. The content validity of the tool was obtained at 0.99. Moreover, exploratory factor analysis explored three factors of emotional, social, and high-risk situations explaining 60% of the variance. Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the questionnaire was estimated at 0.94.

The smoking abstinence self-efficacy scale is a valid and reliable tool among Iranian female adolescents derived from the native context of this group of people which can examine smoking abstinence self-efficacy in three dimensions of emotional, social, and high-risk situations. Moreover, it can identify adolescents with different levels of smoking abstinence self-efficacy.