The intention to quit smoking: The role of specific worry and trait worry
Silvia Casale, Giuly Bertoli, Ilaria Penzo, Nina Malerbi
Research on the identification of the psychosocial predictors of the intention to quit smoking often
emphasizes the predictive role of worrying about health — beside the role played by the variables
traditionally included in socio-cognitive models. In order to investigate the predictive power of specific
and general worry on the intention to quit smoking, data were collected twice on an opportunistic
sample (T1, n = 195; T2, n = 143). A hierarchical regression analysis was used. The model explains
a significant proportion of variance of the intention to quit smoking. Specific worries about health,
self-efficacy, partner’s smoking behaviour and other health behaviours are significant predictors of
the intention to quit smoking. In particular, specific worry about health emerges as the most powerful
predictor of the intention to quit smoking — and its inclusion removes
the significant effect shown by
general worry in the first step. Among smokers, general
worry about health may be a result of concern
because of the smoking behaviour adopted. Instead, the adoption of healthy habits seems to be a
deterrent for the formation of the intention to quit smoking. Applications and possible directions for
further research are discussed.
Keywords
Intention to quit smoking, Specific worry, Trait worry, Protection
Motivation
Theory, Theory of Planned Behaviour.
