Implicit theories of smoking and association with interest in quitting among current smokers

Many cigarette smokers make multiple attempts to quit before they are successful. Implicit theories of smoking (ITS)–beliefs about whether smoking behavior is something that is changeable (incremental belief) or fixed (entity belief)–may play a role in quitting. Four iterations of the cross-sectional, nationally-representative Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) were used in logistic regression analyses to examine how smokers’ ITS relates to (1) attempts to quit in the past 12 months; (2) considering quitting in the next 6 months; and (3) the interaction between ITS and past quit attempts on considering quitting. Greater incremental beliefs were not significantly associated with having tried to quit in the past year (β = .27, p = .055); however, greater incremental beliefs were associated with greater likelihood of considering quitting in the next 6 months (β = .22, p = .04). Past quit attempts did not moderate the association between ITS and considering quitting (β = .59, p = .10). Results suggest that incremental beliefs are associated with increased intentions to quit.