Self-comparison processes, prototypes, and smoking onset among early adolescents

Background. Research has shown that social images or prototypes of smoking peers play a role in adolescents' decisions to start smoking. To devise effective prevention measures, specific information is needed about how adolescents evaluate characteristics associated with smoker prototypes. Such evaluation is assumed to occur through self-comparison processes, that is, 'self-consistency' and 'self-enhancement' motivations. This is one of the first studies to examine longitudinal relations between both these motivational processes and smoking behavior. Methods. Self-reported data on motivational processes and smoking were gathered at two waves (with a 1-year interval) among Dutch adolescents (12-16 years). Relations between self-comparison processes and willingness to smoke or future smoking behavior were tested among a sample of 1938 respondents. Results. Smoker prototypes predicted adolescents' smoking onset, particularly those images that referred to daily smoking peers as being "cool" or "rebellious." Furthermore, self-consistency and self-enhancement motivations predicted smoking onset for certain characteristics associated with smoker prototypes. Conclusion. Evidence for the role of self-consistency and self-enhancement motivations in adolescents' smoking onset suggests that smoking prevention projects should target both similar and aspiring features associated with the image of smoking peers.