Smoking intention among Chinese youth and implications for health interventions

Research in China reports increasing rates of smoking acquisition among young people. Health interventions are urgently needed to curb this trend. This study investigates smoking intention among Chinese youth as a starting point for developing smoking prevention strategies. Using the framework of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), a cross-sectional study of 18- and 19-year-old students (N = 949) was conducted in two schools in Kunming, Southwest China, to investigate their smoking intention. The TPB worked extremely well as a predictive model of intention to smoke, accounting for 55–65% of the variance. The TPB model differentiated students with different experiences of smoking. Means of intention, attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control were highest among current smokers, lower among former smokers and experimental smokers and lowest among never smokers. Intention–attitude relationships were strongest among current smokers, whereas intention–subjective norm relationships were strongest among never smokers. The strength of beliefs underlying each TPB construct also differed according to smoking experience. These findings have important implications for developing smoking prevention strategies as different TPB constructs and underlying beliefs could be targeted in health interventions and counselling for students with different smoking experiences.