Objective: To develop a new measure of smoking initiation and progression among adolescents.
Method: This study used data from 2504 regular and alternative high school students to evaluate the psychometric properties of a new 3-item, 5-stage measure of smoking initiation and progression.
Results: The categorization method showed good 4-week test-retest reliability (.83 among boys and .87 among girls). The demographic distribution of adolescents into stages was consistent with previous research.
Conclusion: This 5-stage classification method could be a useful framework for describing variation along the smoking up-take and progression continuum.