Comparison of Adolescents’ Estimates of Personal Risk and Benefit With Regular Versus Light Cigarettes: Mean-Level Analyses
| Risk Estimates, Mean (SD) | t Value | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Regular Cigarettes | Light Cigarettes | ||
| Short-term cigarette use | |||
| Risks | |||
| Smell like an ashtray | 79.81 (27.29) | 79.04 (26.66) | 0.822 |
| Get a bad cough from smoking | 71.93 (28.17) | 69.97 (28.24) | 1.56 |
| Have trouble catching your breath | 71.56 (28.59) | 71.20 (27.85) | 0.325 |
| Have many really bad colds | 58.09 (30.42) | 60.07 (30.62) | 1.52 |
| Have bad breath | 78.43 (29.61) | 75.64 (29.74) | 2.16* |
| Addiction | |||
| Become addicted to cigarettes | 69.07 (30.30) | 66.98 (30.13) | 1.32 |
| Still be smoking in 5 y | 57.32 (32.42) | 59.76 (31.18) | 1.45 |
| Be able to quit smoking | 45.82 (32.98) | 50.19 (32.20) | 2.53† |
| How long will it take to become addicted‡ | 2.98 (1.18) | 3.17 (1.15) | 3.73§ |
| How easy will it be for you to quit smoking‖ | 3.64 (1.08) | 3.41 (1.06) | 4.59§ |
| Long-term cigarette use | |||
| Risks | |||
| Get lung cancer | 73.04 (25.22) | 70.89 (27.03) | 1.79¶ |
| Die from lung cancer | 68.80 (26.92) | 68.35 (26.87) | 0.356 |
| Get a bad cough from smoking | 75.52 (25.31) | 74.06 (25.60) | 1.45 |
| Have trouble catching your breath | 76.36 (24.16) | 74.69 (26.62) | 1.50 |
| Have a heart attack | 67.66 (25.51) | 65.15 (26.35) | 2.12* |
| Get wrinkles on your face | 79.74 (24.13) | 78.44 (25.50) | 1.159 |
| Die from a smoking-related disease | 73.13 (25.36) | 70.53 (26.89) | 2.30* |
↵* P < .05;
↵† P < .01;
↵§ P < .001;
↵¶ P < .10.
↵‡ Response scale for this question: will not happen (1); ≤1 month (2); 1 to 6 months (3); 7 to 11 months (4); 1 to 2 years (5); 3 to 4 years (6); ≥5 years (7).
↵‖ Response scale for this question: very easy (1); somewhat easy (2); a little easy (3); not very easy (4); not at all easy (5).