Are the stages of change for smokers qualitatively distinct? An analysis using an adolescent sample

According to the transtheoretical model (J. O. Prochaska & C. C. DiClemente, 1983), current smokers can be usefully divided into three distinct stages. Questionnaire items needed for staging smokers contain questions about intentions to quit within fixed time frames (30 days and 6 months) and require "Yes" or "No" responses. However, some smokers might not think of quitting in terms of fixed time frames. If this were the case, these smokers would select "Yes" or "No" arbitrarily and be assigned to stages on the basis of arbitrary responses. This research employed a sample of high school smokers (n = 775) to address this issue by expanding the available responses to the stages of change (SOC) questionnaire items. In addition to "Yes" and "No," smokers were given the option of "Don't know/Undecided." When responding to the 30-day and 6-month questions, 33.1% and 35.8% of smokers, respectively, chose "Don't know/ Undecided." These results suggest that the SOC questionnaire items do not capture qualitative distinctions among adolescent smokers.