Subject characteristics as predictors of self-change in smoking.

Subject characteristics served as predictors of smokers' success or failure in their self-change efforts at smoking cessation over a 6-month period. Seven hundred and three adult subjects represented five stages of change based on the transtheoretical model: precontemplation, contemplation, action, maintenance, and relapse. Step-wise multiple discriminant functions were used to predict movement across the stages. Health problems, problem duration, daily cigarettes, previous attempts to quit, and smoking for pleasure predicted movement through various stages of change. The stronger the smoking habit, the less apt the smoker is to quit or maintain a nonsmoking status. Smokers with higher incomes and more years of education are more likely than persons of lower socioeconomic levels to be successful in their self-change efforts. The advantages of process-oriented rather than static variables for predicting self-change are discussed.