Implicit theories of smoking and association with interest in quitting among current smokers

Many cigarette smokers make multiple attempts to quit before they are successful. Implicit theories of smoking (ITS)-beliefs about whether smoking behavior is something that is changeable (incremental belief) or fixed (entity belief)-may play a role in quitting. Four iterations of the cross-sectional, nationally-representative Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) were used in logistic regression analyses to examine how smokers' ITS relates to (1) attempts to quit in the past 12 months; (2) considering quitting in the next 6 months; and (3) the interaction between ITS and past quit attempts on considering quitting. Greater incremental beliefs were not significantly associated with having tried to quit in the past year (β = .27, p = .055); however, greater incremental beliefs were associated with greater likelihood of considering quitting in the next 6 months (β = .22, p = .04). Past quit attempts did not moderate the association between ITS and considering quitting (β = .59, p = .10). Results suggest that incremental beliefs are associated with increased intentions to quit.