Development and validation of Decisional Balance and Temptations measures for Bulgarian adolescent smokers

The goal of this study was to develop measures for Decisional Balance and Situational Temptations for Bulgarian adolescent smokers and to test predicted theoretical relationships with Stages of Change in the same population. Consistent with previous findings for other populations, a 3-factor model for Decisional Balance (CFI = .95) and a hierarchical 4-factor model for Temptations (CFI = .90) best fit the data. The predicted crossover pattern for Decisional Balance and a decreasing trend for Temptations across the Stages of Change were verified. Both measures demonstrated good levels of factorial invariance across gender and across random split-half cross-validation samples. These results support the cross-cultural validity of the TTM constructs and indicate that they can be used as a basis for development of interventions for the population under study.