Risk behavior often seems 'self-defeating' to the observers. Most people understand the basic health-related knowledge, but some of them still choose to continue risk behaviors, especially for the young. This study aimed to examine time perspective, optimism bias and self control correlated with smoking behavior in Chinese college students. A cross-sectional survey enrolling 3016 university students in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, China. Influence Factors were identified using multiple logistic regression analyses. Prevalence of current smoking was 20.92% (631 smokers), including 272 daily smokers (9.02%) and 359 non-daily smokers (11.90%). Future-oriented time perspective, general capacity for self-discipline, reliability and ethnicity were protective factors of smoking behavior. Possibility of self-suffering diseases and gender were risk factors of smoking behavior. Smoking in University of Chengdu, China is a severe problem. Results in this research have suggested that irrespective of the smoking level, improving health-related knowledge, time management awareness and self-control ability may contribute to reducing the prevalence of smoking behavior.
Keywords: China; Smoking behavior; optimistic bias; self control; time perspective.