Self-motivation for smoking cessation among teenagers: Preliminary development of a scale for assessment of controlled and autonomous regulation

Two studies are reported in which the aim was to develop a short self-report scale to assess Motivation for Smoking Cessation in Teenagers (MSCT). An initial pool of 29 items was developed from previous work and through interviews with 50 teenagers in an attempt to assess the constructs of autonomous and controlled regulation. Using responses from a further 198 teenagers, Principal Component Analysis provided evidence for a two component structure, reflecting autonomous and controlled regulation. On the basis of these results, 12 items were selected on the basis of their component loadings in order to compose the final revised scale.