Self-regulation and Tobacco Use: Contributes of the Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Portuguese Version of the Short Self-Regulation Questionnaire

Self-regulation has been one of most studied developmental skills, given its close relation with health and lifestyle, adjustment and resilience and in the prevention of risk behaviours as substance use. Given the lack of studies about self-regulation and tobacco use in Portuguese context, this paper aims to present the results of the confirmatory factor analysis of the Short Self-Regulation Questionnaire (Carey, Neal & Collins, 2004) in our population, exploring the role of self-regulation in tobacco use. To do that, the SSRQ and a socio-demographic questionnaire was administered to a sample of 390 adolescents, mostly females (n=228, 59.2%), with ages ranging from 15 and 18 years old (M=16.05, SD=.865). Results allow us to find a good fit model with good reliability of the SSRQ. Descriptive statistics and differential studies allow us to find differences in impulse control according gender and a negative correlation with age. Results allow us also to verify a negative correlation between self-regulation and onset age of tobacco use and a negative correlation between control impulse and tobacco use. Data is analysed according to the literature and its implications to prevention and further researches are presented.