Recommendations
The results suggest that predictors of smoking play different roles at various stages of smoking behavior, as well as during advancement from one early stage of smoking to another. Thus, it is important for health care providers to match appropriate prevention strategies to the smoking stage of an adolescent. For example, to decrease the risk of adolescents moving to the susceptible pre-contemplation stage, educational programs should be provided for both adolescents and their parents. To prevent adolescents from becoming “triers” of smoking, teaching refusal skills and enhancing adolescents’ refusal skills are needed. The implementation of a no smoking policy, in each school system, may facilitate the presence of a smoke free environment and, subsequently, reduce availability of and temptation to smoke. Dissemination of mass-media educational information promoting non-smoking behavior may prove beneficial for fostering negative attitudes toward smoking, as well as reducing the attractiveness of smoking behavior.