The Brief Smoking Consequences Questionnaire-Adult (BSCQ-A): Development of a short form of the SCQ-A

Abstract

A brief form of the Smoking Consequences Questionnaire-Adult (SCQ-A) was developed as an economical alternative to the 55-item SCQ-A in assessing smoking outcome expectancies in adult, heavy smokers. A total of 25 items (two to three items per each of the 10 SCQ-A scales) were administered to current smokers and ex-smokers. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to determine whether the brief form was better accounted for by a 4- or 10-factor model. Several variants of 9- and 8-factor models also were compared. The 10-factor model, representing the 10 subscales of the full-length SCQ-A, fit the data more adequately than the other models. The Brief SCQ-A (BSCQ-A) scales demonstrated good internal consistency (mean coefficient α = .79) and convergent validity. The BSCQ-A also showed promising validity in distinguishing among current smokers and ex-smokers. In a separate sample of smokers, strong and positive associations were present between corresponding pairs of the SCQ-A and BSCQ-A subscales.