Assessment of the questionnaire of environmental factors and adolescent smoking behavior: a psychometric study

Abstract

Background Smoking is one of the leading causes of mortality in the world. Evidence suggests that environmental factors (EF) play an important role in adolescent smoking behavior. Therefore, the present study aimed to perform a psychometric analysis of the questionnaire of EF on smoking behavior and evaluate the theoretical framework with a path analysis approach in adolescents in Isfahan, Iran. Methods This psychometric cross-sectional study recruited a sample of 340 adolescents selected by simple random stratified clustered sampling in Isfahan in 2019. The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire of EF. Results The participants' mean age was 16.67 (0.98) years. The content validity index and content validity ratio of the questionnaire of EF were 0.8 and 0.58, respectively, and its total corrected item-total correlations index was 0.377. The results of confirmatory factor analysis showed acceptable goodness of fit for the first-order measurement model of environmental variables, and the results of path analysis showed acceptable goodness of fit for the explanatory model of EF. Conclusions The present study provided a valid and reliable explanatory model of EF of smoking behavior and its related questionnaire, so it can be used in studies related to adolescent smoking behavior.