Development and psychometric evaluation of the Primary Appraisal of Smoking Cessation Inventory

For this study, we developed and evaluated the psychometric properties of the Primary Appraisal of Smoking Cessation Inventory (PASCI), a self-report measure designed to assess the perceived gains and losses associated with quitting smoking based on the theoretical model of stress described by Lazarus and Folkman (1984). We administered the 26-item PASCI and two other questionnaires to 244 current smokers and to 30 ex-smokers. Item analyses indicated that two items on the PASCI should be deleted due to low item-total correlations. A principal components analysis of the remaining 24 items identified two separate and independent factors, Losses and Gains, and scores on the subscales of both factors were internally consistent and stable over repeated administrations. The validity of the PASCI was established by examining the relationship between smoking status and scores on the PASCI subscales and by finding significant correlations between the PASCI and the Decisional Balance Scale (Velicer, DiClemente, Prochaska, & Brandenburg, 1985), a measure conceptually similar to the construct measured by the PASCI. We concluded that the PASCI is reliable and valid and can be used to investigate the relationship between primary appraisal and smoking cessation.