The reliability and validity of the Temptations to Try Smoking Scale in a group of Chinese adolescents

Abstract

Objective: To provide a scientifc tool, the Temptations to Try Smoking Scale (TTSS) is introduced to evaluate its reliability and validity in preventing and intervening Chinese adolescents from smoking temptations. Methods: A questionnaire, including the TTSS, the Chinese version of the Decisional Balance Scale (CDBS), the Adolescent Smoking Curiosity Scale (ASCOS), and the Sensation-Seeking Scale (SSS), is used to test 1195 Chinese adolescent volunteers (214 of them are retested after 1 month). If all six items in the TTSS are retained, the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) reveals that the TTSS exhibits a structure of two factors: positive social and curiosity/stress. Results: The confrmatory factor analysis (CFA) shows that the two-factor model of the TTSS has the ftting indices χ 2/df = 2.35, RMSEA = 0.06, and CFI = 0.99, which are better than those of its single-factor model. The total scores of the TTSS, positive social, and curiosity/stress are positively correlated with the scores of Pros, ASCOS, TAS, and Dis of SSS but negatively correlated with the Cons, hereby exhibiting good criterion-related validity. The internal consistency coefcient of the TTSS is 0.89, and the retest reliability is 0.90. Conclusion: Therefore, the TTSS has good reliability and validity for Chinese adolescents and can be used as an efective tool to evaluate adolescents’ smoking temptations in China.