USING THE THEORY OF REASONED ACTION TO PREDICT SMOKING INTENTION AMONG NON-SMOKING SECONDARY SCHOOL GOING ADOLESCENTS IN PENINSULAR MALAYSIA

The study aims to determine the relationship of attitude and social-norm with the intention to smoke in the future among non-smoking youth. Data were derived from a study on smoking among form four students in a selected secondary school in Peninsular Malaysia, which utilised a pre-validated questionnaire to obtain data from the selected respondents. Descriptive statistics and structural equation modelling (SEM) were used in data analysis. The study revealed independent variables accounted for 22.6% of the variance in intention to initiate smoking and the model had a good fit. A significant relationship was observed between subjective norm and intention to initiate smoking (R=0.46). The study revealed that attitude and social norm substantially explained intention to smoke among non-smoking adolescents. Future measures should concentrate on correcting the subjective norms to reduce the intention to initiate smoking among non-smoking youth.