Disengagement beliefs, Perceived Risk and Benefits and Motivation to Quit Smoking

Abstract

This present research is aimed to investigate relationship between disengagement beliefs, perceived risks and benefits of quitting, motivation to quit smoking and smoking selfefficacy among adult smokers. Employing the technique of purposive convenience sampling data was collected from (N = 250) adult smokers from area of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The age of participants ranged between 18 years to 35 years (M = 23.78; SD = 3.40). Smoking Self-Efficacy Questionnaire, ( Etter, Bergman, Humair, & Perneger, 2009) was used to measure self-efficacy, Disengagement Beliefs Questionnaire (Solomon & Manson, 1997) was used to assess disengagement beliefs, Perceived Risks and Benefits Questionnaire (McKee, Malley, Salovey, Kvishnan, & Mazure, 2005) was used to measure perceived risks and benefits of quitting and Motivation and Confidence to quit smoking questionnaire (Kathleen, Clara, Loreta, Richard, & Jennifer, 1994) was used to measure motivation and confidence to quit among adult smokers. Cronbach alpha for subscales of Smoking Self Efficacy i.e. Smoking Self Efficacy external and Smoking Self Efficacy internal were .89 and .86 respectively. Cronbach alpha of Disengagement Beliefs Questionnaire was .86 whereas reliabilities of Perceived risks and benefits subscales were .90 and .91 respectively. The reliability of Motivation and Confidence to quit smoking scale ranged from .75 to .82. Results indicated that Smoking self-efficacy and perceived benefits were positively related, whereas perceived risks of quitting and disengagement beliefs were negatively related with motivation to quit smoking. Simple linear regression indicated that smoking self-efficacy and disengagement beliefs were predictors of Motivation and confidence to quit smoking among adult smokers. The overall model accounted for 32% and 14% variance for motivation and confidence respectively. Results of meditational analysis indicated that smoking self-efficacy (both internal and external) mediates the relationship between disengagement beliefs and motivation to quit smoking among adult smokers. Additional finding indicated significant differences exist along marital status where married smokers' had low smoking selfefficacy, motivation to quit perceived benefits of quitting and show higher perceived risks of quitting and disengagement beliefs. Similarly significant differences were found in relation to smoking status of parents. It has been found that smokers whose parents smoked had low self-efficacy, motivation and higher disengagement to quit smoking. These findings can help in designing better management plans for dealing with individuals having nicotine dependence.