Intention to avoid smoking of vietnamese adolecent

i

INTENTION TO AVOID SMOKING OF VIETNAMESE ADOLECENT

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

In Business

By
Ms.: Le Thi Thuy
ID: MBA 05044

International University - Vietnam National University HCMC
January 2014


ii

INTENTION TO AVOID SMOKING OF VIETNAMESE ADOLECENT
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
In Business
By
Ms.: Le Thi Thuy
ID: MBA 05044
International University - Vietnam National University HCMC
January 2014
Under the guidance and approval of the committee, and approved by all its members, this

thesis has been accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree.
Approved:
---------------------------------------------Chairperson
---------------------------------------------Committee member
---------------------------------------------Committee member

--------------------------------------------Committee member
--------------------------------------------Committee member
--------------------------------------------Committee member


iii

Acknowledgement
My dissertation would have not been completed without the enthusiastic support
and assistance from many people. This period of time should be the most difficult time in my
life because of many problems happening in my family. Fortunately I have received the
support and encouraging from many people to overcome the problem.
On the first line, from the bottom of my heart, I would like to express my grateful
thanks to my advisor – Dr. Nguyen Thi Quynh Mai for all her enthusiastic instruction,
consultancy and especially her inspiring and encouraging me during the time for my final
thesis. She has created the most suitable condition for me and given me the most useful
advice to contribute to my thesis as well as my private difficulties.
I would like to send my thanks to International University – National University as
a whole, especially the School of Business where have spent almost two years studying this
MBA program from which I have accumulated a lot of knowledge as well as many skills that
I had not ever possessed before. During this time, I have also received the useful
assistance and prompt feedback from teaching staff and officers as well. Moreover, I have
made friends with many others student not only in my class but also senior and junior intakes.
I would like to express my special thanks to my friends, especially Mr. Ngo Quang

Long, Ms. Tran Hoang Cam Tu who already spent their valuable time to help me finish my
survey soonest.
Finally, I would like to send my special thanks to my sweet family who have always
encouraged and facilitated me in further study. They have already been beside me and given
me the big motivation to successfully complete my MBA program in IU – VNU.


iv

Plagiarism Statements
I would like to declare that, apart from the acknowledged references, this thesis either
does not use language, ideas, or other original material from anyone; or has not been
previously submitted to any other educational and research programs or institutions. I fully
understand that any writings in this thesis contradicted to the above statement will
automatically lead to the rejection from the MBA program at the International University Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City.


v

Copyright Statement
This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is
understood to recognize that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the
thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the author’s prior
consent.
© Lê Thị Thủy / MBA05044 / 2012 -2014


vi

Table of content

Chapter 1 – Introduction .................................................................................................... 1
1.1

Background Of The Study ................................................................................................... 1

1.2

Smoking In Viet Nam ........................................................................................................... 2

1.3

Rationale of study ................................................................................................................. 3

1.4

Main Research Question And Hypothesis............................................................................ 5

1.4.1

Research question............................................................................................ 5

1.4.2

Research hypothesis......................................................................................... 5

1.5

Objectives Of The Study....................................................................................................... 5

1.6

Scope And Limitations ......................................................................................................... 5

1.7

Significance And Implications ............................................................................................. 6

Chapter 2 – Literature review ............................................................................................ 7
2.1

Concept Of Behavioral Intention......................................................................................... 7

2.2

The Predictive Theories And Theory Of Planned Behavior (TPB) .................................. 9

2.2.1

Overall View Of Theory Of Planned Behavior................................................ 9

2.2.2

The TPB And Smoking – A Review Of Previous Researches ........................ 10

2.2.3

Components Of Theory Of Planned Behavior .............................................. 12

2.2.3.1

Attitude (towards the behavior) ............................................................................... 12

2.2.3.2

Subjective Norms (about the behavior) .................................................................... 12

2.2.3.3

Perceived behavioral control (of the behavior) ....................................................... 13

2.2.3.4

Behavioral intention and behavior........................................................................... 14

2.2.4

Conceptual framework .................................................................................. 14

Chapter 3 – Research Methodologies ............................................................................... 16
3.1

Research Approach ............................................................................................................. 16

3.2

Research Process ................................................................................................................. 17

3.3

Data Collection Method ...................................................................................................... 19

3.3.1

Target Population ......................................................................................... 19

3.3.2

Sample Size ................................................................................................... 19

3.3.3

Sampling Method And Data Collection......................................................... 20

3.3.4

Research Instrument And Questionnaire Design.......................................... 21

3.3.5

Data Analysis. ............................................................................................... 23

Chapter 4 – Data Analysis And Research Results ........................................................... 25
4.1

Sample Demographics ........................................................................................................ 25


vii
4.2

Descriptive Statistics ........................................................................................................... 30

4.2.1

Attitude towards smoking .............................................................................. 30

4.2.2

Subjective Norms........................................................................................... 31

4.2.3

Perceived Behavioral Control ........................................................................ 32

4.2.4

Intention to avoid smoking ............................................................................ 32

4.2.5

Comparison among different demographics ................................................. 33

4.2.5.1

The difference between male and female’s attitude towards smoking ..................... 33

4.2.5.2
people

The difference between male and female’s evaluation towards effects from other

…………………………………………………………………………………….................35

4.2.5.3

The difference between male and female’s control towards smoking ...................... 35

4.2.5.4

The difference between male and female’s intention to avoid smoking ................... 36

4.3

Reliability statistics ............................................................................................................. 36

4.4

Validity Test.......................................................................................................................... 37

4.5

Model revision ..................................................................................................................... 39

4.6

Hypothesis Revision ............................................................................................................ 40

4.7

Pearson correlation test ...................................................................................................... 40

4.8

Regression analysis ............................................................................................................. 42

Chapter 5 – Conclusion And Recommendation ............................................................... 46
5.1

Summary And Discussion Of Research Findings ............................................................ 46

5.2

Recommendations ............................................................................................................... 48

5.3

Limitations and recommendations for further researches.............................................. 49


viii

List of Tables
Table 1: Constructs and indicators of behavior .................................................................... 22
Table 2: The profile of Respondents (N=330)...................................................................... 26
Table 3: Descriptive Statistics of Attitude towards smoking ................................................ 30
Table 4: Descriptive Statistics of Subjective Norms ............................................................ 31
Table 5: Descriptive Statistics of Perceived Behavioral Control .......................................... 32
Table 6: Descriptive Statistics of Intention to avoid smoking .............................................. 33
Table 7: The difference between male and female’s attitude towards smoking .................... 34
Table 8: The difference between male and female’s evaluation towards effects from other
people ................................................................................................................................. 35

Table 9: The difference between male and female’s control towards smoking ..................... 35
Table 10: The difference between male and female’s intention to avoid smoking ................ 36
Table 11: Reliability of variables......................................................................................... 37
Table 12: Rotated Component Matrix(a) ............................................................................. 38
Table 13: Reliability of variables after rotation .................................................................... 39
Table 14: Pearson correlation coefficient scale .................................................................... 41
Table 15: Correlation Coefficients of Variables................................................................... 41
Table 16: Regression for Intention to avoid smoking model ................................................ 42


ix

List of Figures
Figure 1: The increasing rate of global Cigarette Consumption in one century....................... 2
Figure 2: The Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991).................................................... 14
Figure 3: Conceptual Framework of factors influence to intention to avoid smoking ........... 15
Figure 4: Research Process .................................................................................................. 17
Figure 5: Percentages of Gender .......................................................................................... 27
Figure 6: Percentages of Income ......................................................................................... 28
Figure 7: Educational level .................................................................................................. 28
Figure 8: Smoking status ..................................................................................................... 29
Figure 9: Relationship between educational level and occupation ........................................ 29
Figure 10: Revised conceptual model .................................................................................. 40
Figure 11: Final research model .......................................................................................... 45


x

Abstract
The research of “Intention to avoid smoking of Vietnamese adolescent” was

conducted under circumstance that smoking situation has been becoming alarmingly,
especially in recent years in Viet Nam. It has a lot of bad effects for people’s health and the
question of decreasing smoking is one of the most social and difficult question currently.
However, the trend of consumption is changing day by day with the effects of actions from
organizations and people in society. In that general trend, the perception of young people on
smoking is also changing.
This study is conducted to test the ability of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to
predict Vietnamese adolescent’s intention to avoid smoking and the subsequent behavior. A
prospective sample of 330 adolescents participated in the study. In the conceptual framework
model, it was hypothesis that there were three determinants to the effectiveness of behavioral
intention including attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control. The target
population for this study was Vietnamese adolescent from 15 to 35 years old in Ho Chi Minh
City coming from three group of occupation including students, white-collar workers and bluecollar workers. Researcher applied quantitative approach as the major method to conduct the

study with main statistic technique consisting factor analysis and multiple regression.
Through the study, the difference among different demographics is also presented. Besides,
Intention to avoid smoking was directly influenced by perceived benefit towards smoking,
perceived harmfulness towards smoking, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control.
The finding from the study suggested that in order to reduce smoking in society, it is
necessary to have the effects of parents, teacher and need more propaganda campaigns about
the harmfulness of smoking.
Keywords: TPB, Attitude towards behavior, Subjective norms, Perceived behavior control,
Behavioral Intention.


xi


1

Chapter 1 – Introduction
The aim of this chapter is to briefly introduce the research background as well as the
basis of selecting the field of research. It is then followed with the discussion of the
research’s scope, limitations and its significance and implications. After all, the research
structure is also mentioned to make the research easier to follow.

1.1

Background Of The Study
Smoking has been considering as one of the most serious global problem for a long

time, especially in the current trend of increasing number of smoking people into the
adolescent. Smoking numbers have gone up with burning results in the last ten years.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2013), globally the population covered
by at least one effective tobacco control measure has more than doubled from 1 billion to 2.3
billion. This comprises more than a third of the world’s population.
Smoking is one of the main risk factors for a number of chronic diseases, including
cancer, lung diseases, and cardiovascular diseases. However, smoking is still common
throughout the world. WHO also has given number that tobacco kills up to half of its users
and it kills nearly 6 million people each year. More than five million of those deaths are the
results of direct tobacco use while more than 600,000 are the result of non-smokers being
exposed to second-hand smoke. If the urgent action is not taken, the annual death toll could
rise to more than eight million by 2030.
Nearly 80% of the world's one billion smokers live in low- and middle-income
countries. Consumption of tobacco products is increasing globally, though it is decreasing in
some high-income and upper middle-income countries. A number of countries have
legislation restricting tobacco advertising, and regulating who can buy and use tobacco


2

products, and where people can smoke. However, the number of smoking people is still
increasing day by day and it has become the problem of society and takes a lot of engineer
from many organizations.

Figure 1: The increasing rate of global Cigarette Consumption in one century
(Source: />
1.2

Smoking In Viet Nam
In Vietnam, smoking situation has been becoming alarmingly, especially in recent

years. Vietnam is among 15 leading countries of using tobacco. The rate of tobacco using
currently (estimating in population from 15 years old and over) is 23%, equal to 15.3 million
people. Among adults, the percentage of smokers was 47.4% in men and 1.4% in women.
The highest rate group of smoking rate is ranged in working age among 25 and 50 years old
and remarkably the age range of smoking is younger than that in the past because it is so easy
to access tobacco. Not only people who smoke directly suffer the disease but also the nonsmokers also are exposed to second-hand smoke. The number second-hand smoke is also
very high in Vietnam. The incidence of exposure to tobacco smoke at home is 67.6% and in
the workplace is 49.0%. In particular, the rate of exposure to tobacco smoke at home is nearly


3

70% in women and 50% in children. Passive cigarette smoke is one of the many factors
causing heart disease, lung cancer; it impairs respiratory function and affects generative
function in both men and women. It increases the risk of heart disease to 25-30%, lung
disease to 25% and increase the risk of stroke up to 82% (WHO, 2013).
The World Health Organization estimates that each year Vietnam has about 40,000
people die of diseases related to tobacco and if we do not have timely solution, this figure

will rise to 70,000 by 2030. This number is almost higher 4 times than the number of deaths
from road traffic accidents in our country each year. These studying data already has affected
to consumer’s trend and intention to avoid smoking day by day.

1.3

Rationale of study
The bad effects of smoking for people’s health and the social environment are very

clear and the information about this is communicated widely. According to the WHO Report
on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2013, 2.3 billion is the number of people worldwide
covered by at least one life-saving measure to limit tobacco use has more than doubled in the
last five years. The number of people covered by bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and
sponsorship, the focus of this year’s report, increased by almost 400 million people residing
mainly in low- and middle-income countries (WHO, 2013). The ratio of Vietnamese
adolescent has also increased recent time and the effect has caused the government much
difficulty to solve problem.
Furthermore, the Report shows that 3 billion people are now covered by national antitobacco campaigns. As a result, hundreds of millions of nonsmokers are less likely to start.
However, the Report notes, to achieve the globally agreed target of a 30% reduction
of tobacco use by 2025, more countries have to implement comprehensive tobacco control
programs (WHO, 2013).


4

It is very clear that the trend of consumption is changing day by day if there are the
actions of organizations, people and when the perception of people is affected. In that general
trend, the perception of young people on smoking is also changing.
According to the research of North West Regional Youth Work Unit, young people
are affected by the issue of tobacco in the media and tobacco marketing through packaging. It

is of tremendous use to Tobacco Free Futures and frames young people’s views in a way that
is not influenced by prior knowledge of the evidence.
The findings are valuable in understanding what young people believe about these
issues. They also serve to demonstrate that young people have little conscious awareness of
the significant impact of branding and marketing on human behavior, which is well
established in the literature (North West Regional Youth Work Unit, 2012).
There are a lot of factors influencing perception of people including Social and
Environmental factors (accessibility of tobacco products, pricing, advertising and promotion,
parental hostility, interaction of social influences…), Personal Characteristics, Expectations
of Personal Effects of Smoking and Biological Factors (Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (US); 2001 Mar.). About smoking behavior, in many past researches, the authors
have shown that smoking behavior related on social interaction (Panu Poutvaara & Lars-H.R
.Siemers, 2007); cigarette taxes (Mir M. Ali, 2012), education (Pierre Koning, Dinand
Webbink and Nicholas G. Martin, 2010).
According to Ajzen, the factors influence consumer’s behavioral intention including
Attitude, Subjective norm and Perceived behavioral control. This will lead to the behavior
(Ajzen, 1991).
Understanding the factors influencing the consumer’s behavior and perception will
help us to explore how young people think about smoking and investigate how conceptions of
addiction may influence intentions to smoke cigarettes. It also aims to give recommendations


5

for organizations, government offices and producers of smoking to apply for real life. This is
the goal that I need to archive in this research.

1.4

Main Research Question And Hypothesis

1.4.1

Research question

From the rationale of the research, these questions are raised: “What are factors influencing
Vietnamese adolescent’s intention to avoid smoking and what factor influences most to smoking?”
and “How do those factors impact on the intention to avoid smoking?” The ultimate question “How
do government officers use these factors to contribute to their campaigns of smoking invention and
how do producers use them to have right strategy on their business?”

1.4.2

Research hypothesis

The hypothesis research is conducted as below:
H1: Attitude towards smoking positively affect to the intention to avoid smoking
H2: Subjective norms positively affect to the intention to avoid smoking
H3: Perceived behavioral control positively affect to the intention to avoid smoking

1.5

Objectives Of The Study
This research is conducted to define the factors influence smoking behavioral

intention of Vietnamese adolescent age from 15 to 35 years old. Specifically, the research
will focus on three main objectives:
 To evaluate the factors influence the intention to avoid smoking of Vietnamese
adolescent age from 15 to 35 years old and the factor most influences in smoking
behavioral intention;
 To define how the factors impact on the intention to avoid smoking;

 To give the recommendations for the families, young people, policy government
makers and tobacco producers.
1.6

Scope And Limitations


6

This research is conducted on people in Ho Chi Minh City within 15 to 35 years
including men and women from all occupations. The samples will include students, whitecollar workers and blue-collar workers. Research subjects cover people usually smoke every
day, people sometimes smoke and also people have never smoked until now.
The limitation of this research is that the samples are just people from 15 to 35 years
old living in Ho Chi Minh City, it is not large enough to generate an overall picture which
can be representative for all smoking people in Vietnam. Moreover, the perceptions of these
respondents are much diversified so the result of the research may be applied to just a certain
range of people only.

1.7

Significance And Implications
This research will contribute to understand reasons and factors lead people to the

intention to avoid smoking or not. Understanding the reasons and factors of smoking
intention will contribute to give recommendations for the families and young people to find
the right way to influence others in stopping smoking cigarette. More important significance
of this research is that it will help organizations and government offices to have more
suggestion as well as evidence to design and implement the method to reduce the smoking
rate in our society. In business, it will give recommendations for producers of cigarette to
find the best way to develop their business following the way of decreasing the bad effects to

social living. Last one is that this research will contribute to explain and development of the
theory.


7

Chapter 2 – Literature review

The core function of this chapter is the revision of the previous researches in
association with this study’s problems. For the purpose of find the factors that influences to
smoking behavioral intention, the literature on Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was
reviewed. As the result, a comprehensive theoretical model of the characteristics of Theory of
Planned Behavior (TPB) success was tested to examine the relationship among the factors of
attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control and smoking behavioral
intention.

2.1

Concept Of Behavioral Intention
Behavioral intention was first found by Fishbein and Ajzen’s in 1975 that were

described to “…capture the motivational factors that influence a behavior”. It is defined as an
action probability that someone will be able to do in a given behavior.
It can measure how much effort people are willing to attempt in order to implement
the behavior. In Theory of Planned Behavior, behavioral intention is the closest predictor of
behavior (Ajzen, 1991). “Behavioral intention is an indication of an individual's readiness to
perform a given behavior. It is assumed to be an immediate antecedent of behavior (Ajzen,
2002b)”. It is based on attitude toward the behavior, subjective norm, and perceived
behavioral control, with each predictor weighted for its importance in relation to the
behavior.

According to Armitage & Conner, 2001, behavioral intention is behavior-specific and
designed and structured by direct questions such as "I intend to do something" with Likert
scale response choices to measure the strength of intention. Intention is displayed in in
measurement by such as “I plan to do something”, “I will to to something”, “I expect to do
something” or other similar concepts.


8

In many projects that the researches implemented to get the meaningful goal related in
better health for people, they already found that behavioral intention has high predictive
validity in relation to a real behavior (Committee on Communication for Behavior Change in
the 21st Century: Improving the Health of Diverse Populations, 2002). According to the
study of Armitage & Conner, 2001; Sheeran & Orbell, 1998; Sheppard, Jon, & Warshaw,
1988; Van den Putte, 1991, from 18% to 38% in behavior were illustrated by behavioral
intention.
Two main theories of behavioral intention that are most used include the Theory of
Reasoned Action (TRA) (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) and the Theory of Planned Behavior
(TPB) (Ajzen, 1991). In these models, the factor of behavior intention can be developed in
different ways such as how, when, how many, where or other specifics. For example “I plan
to smoke in next month/ 3 times per day/ in my house”. According to Gollwitzer &
Brandstätter, 1997; Milne, Orbell, & Sheeran, 2002, “The former has been classified a goal
intention and the latter an implementation intention”.
Besides above expressions of behavioral intention, the different terms are also used by
some other authors. The intention was used as a plan of behavior in response to specific
situations by Gollwitzer (1997). Example is a clause “If I run into my old drinking buddies,
I'll tell them I have to be somewhere and then call my AA sponsor”.
The main objective of the study of consumer behavior is to provide marketers the
knowledge and skills that are necessary to implement the analysis about customers to
enhance the understanding about markets and develop, open and improve the sales. However,

on this research, cigarette is a sensitive product in society with many opposite ideas that we
should stop or continue to produce, so the purposes also have some differences. Finding the
factors influencing the behavioral intention will help researchers to obtain some specific


9

purposes that are not for marketing strategy of cigarette development but some other social
objectives.

2.2

The Predictive Theories And Theory Of Planned Behavior (TPB)
In 1969, Wicker's already had review of research on the attitude-behavior relationship

and he concluded that the given behavior was probably determined by attitudes. In recent
years, many studies “has been developing integrated models, including additional predictors
of behavior such as social norms or intentions” (Olson & Zanna, 1993). These studies
concentrate to the basic factors that decide the individual’s motivation to perform or not
perform the given behavior, so these models has been understood and applied such as the
motivational models (cf. Armitage & Conner, 2000). Among them, the most well-known
motivational models include the Health Belief Model (HBM; Janz & Becker, 1984),
Protection Motivation Theory (PMT; Rogers, 1983), Social Cognitive Theory (SCT; 1986),
the Theories of Reasoned Action (TRA; Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975),
and Planned Behaviour (TPB; Ajzen, 1985, 1988; 1991). The TPB is essentially an extension
of the TRA. TPB model is one of the most predictive persuasion theories and it was used in
many researches for a long time.
2.2.1 Overall View Of Theory Of Planned Behavior
The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was introduced on the article “From
intentions to actions: A theory of planned behavior” by Icek Ajzen in 1985. This theory was

developed from Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) that was suggested in 1975 by Martin
Fishbein together with Icek Ajzen. Ajzen and Fishbein had already built Theory of Reasoned
Action (TRA) after trying to estimate the difference between the attitude and behavior. The
TRA was related to voluntary behavior. However, the reality that many of behaviors were not
voluntary but were controlled and affected by outside factors lead the new addition with the
new component of perceived behavioral control. The new addition that was called Theory of


10

Planned Behavior (TPB) predicts the intended behavior because the behavior can be intended
and planned.
According to the theory of reasoned action, if people evaluate the suggested behavior
as positive (attitude), and if they think their significant others want them to perform the
behavior (subjective norm), this results in a higher intention (motivations) and they are more
likely to do so. A high correlation of attitudes and subjective norms to behavioral intention,
and subsequently to behavior, has been confirmed in many studies (Sheppard, B.H.;
Hartwick, J.& Warshaw, P.R. 1988).
2.2.2 The TPB And Smoking – A Review Of Previous Researches
The TPB model has been applied to several of studies of the relations among beliefs,
attitudes, behavioral intentions and behaviors in various fields such as advertising, public
relations, advertising campaigns and healthcare. Previous researches have shown that the
TPB is quite successful in predicting a large number of behaviors relating to the health. For
example, in the report of Armitage and Conner (2001) the analysis represented that “the
model accounted for 39% and 27% of the variance in intentions and behavior” in which the
attitude factor was the strongest predictor of intention (cf. Armitage & Conner, 2001).
Until now, it have been estimated about more than 1200 researches in academic
databases including Communication & Mass Media Complete, Academic Search Premier,
PsycARTICLES, Business Source Premier, PsycINFO, and PsycCRITIQUES. Especially,
some recent studies have found that the TPB would better help to predict health-related

behavioral intention than the TRA (Ajzen, 1988) (e.g., Albarracin, Fishbein, Johnson, &
Muellerieile, 2001; Sheeran & Taylor, 1999, leisure (e.g., Ajzen & Driver, 1992), exercise
(e.g., Nguyen, Potvin, & Otis, 1997), and diet (e.g., Conner, Kirk, Cade, & Barrett, 2003).
The TPB model has been also applied to environmental psychology area. In the
research in 2010, Koger and Winter already presented that the actions that are friendly with


11

environment would contain a positive normative belief. This shows that “sustainable
behaviors are widely promoted as positive behaviors”. However, the behavioral intentions do
not always lead to the behavior; it can be controlled by the belief or other attitude of
someone.
Therefore, the theory of planned behavior model is a very powerful and predictive
model for explaining the behavior of human. This explains the reason why this model has
been applied much in the studies of health and nutrition fields.
In a recent research, Teemu, Erno and Marco (2011) tested the Theory of Planned
Behavior in the context of entrepreneurship. The result from their test concluded that
“positive entrepreneurial intentions lead to startup behavior”. This finding supports for the
intention-behavior link.
The TPB has also been used to review the behavior in the context of smoking in the
researches of many authors such as Babrow, Black & Tiffany, 1990; Bennett & Clatworthy,
1999; Borland, Owen, Hill & Schofield, 1991; Conner et al., in press; DeVries, Backbier,
Kok & Dijkstra, 1995; Godin, Valois, Lepage, & Desharnais, 1992; Hanson, 1997; Hanson,
1999; Higgins & Conner, 2003; Hill, Boudreau & Amyot, 1999; Hill, Boudreau, Amyot,
Johnston et al., 2004; McMillan, Higgins & Conner, 2005; Norman et al., 1999; Rise, Kovac
& Kraft, 2005; Willemsen et al., 1996.
The model that was applied in this research had been conducted and developed from
some previous researches of tobacco using in many nations such as “Using the theory of
planned behavior to predict tobacco and alcohol use in South African students” (Steingold,

2008); “Smoking or not smoking: How well does the theory of planned behavior predict
intention and behavior?” (Inger Synnove Moan, 2005); “The Theory of Planned Behavior and
Smoking Cessation” (Paul Norman, Mark Conner, Russell Bell, 1999); “Theory of planned
behavior and smoking: meta-analysis and SEM model” (Topa and Moriano, 2010) and so on.


12

In this study, theory of planed behavior is applied to define the factors influence smoking
intention.
2.2.3 Components Of Theory Of Planned Behavior
2.2.3.1

Attitude (towards the behavior)

According to Ajzen, “attitude towards the behavior is an individual's positive or
negative evaluation of self-performance of the particular behavior”.
According to Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975, this component describes the level of favor or
disfavor estimation of someone toward the given behavior. It is decided by the total of factors
including the beliefs connecting the behavior to variety outcomes and other attributes.
The attitude of an individual “exists in the form of evaluation covering all types and
categories of evaluation, both overt and covert, or in cognitive, affective and conative forms”
(Eagly & Chaiken, 1993). Shook & Bratianu (2010) stated that each form would shape the
individual attitude based on beliefs of the individual in the possible outcomes. The more
pleasurable the possibility is, the higher the intention to implement the behavior will be, and
the less pleasurable the outcome possibility is, the lower the intention to carry out the
behavior will be. It means that someone will intent to do the certain behavior once they
evaluate this bring the advantages or it positively (Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M., 1988).
2.2.3.2

Subjective Norms (about the behavior)

Subjective norm is an individual's perception about the particular behavior, which is
influenced by the judgment of significant others (e.g., parents, spouse, friends, teachers)
(Amjad, N. & Wood, A.M. 2009). According to Ajzen, subjective norms include the
estimations of individual under the pressure of society to carry out or not the given behavior.
This component is evaluated based on two interaction elements of “beliefs about how other
people, who may be in some way important to the person, would like them to behave


13

(normative beliefs), and the positive or negative judgments about each belief (outcome
evaluations)” (Francis et al., 2004).
There are some statements about the effect of Subjective norms to behavioral
intention. People who believe certain referents think they should perform a behavior and are
motivated to meet the expectations of referents will have a positive subjective norm. And,
vice versa those who believe the referents think they should not perform the behavior (smoke
in public) will have a negative subjective norm (Cowdery and Karshin, 2009). According to
Ajzen, I. and & Fishbein, M., (1988), an individual will intend to perform a certain behavior
when he/she perceives that important others think he/she should. Important others might be a
person’s, spouse, close friends, physician, etc.
2.2.3.3

Perceived behavioral control (of the behavior)

Perceived behavioral control is “an individual's perceived ease or difficulty of
performing the particular behavior” (Ajzen, 1991). It is determined by the summary of all
accessible control beliefs. In the other words, the degree of intention to perform a behavior of
interest depends on his or her control ability. This component also relates to control beliefs

which are the beliefs of someone about the existence of the factors causing the assistant or
prevention to the particular intention (Ajzen, 2001). The concept of perceived behavioral
control is also related to self-efficacy.
According to Ajzen, I. and & Fishbein, M., (1988), when individual think and believe
that they do not have any opportunities and foundation to perform an intention, they will not
likely to have a strong intention even in case that she or he keep the positive attitude toward
the behavior and other important people will approve that behavior. Although they have
enough positive attitudes and subjective norm, it still needs another factor of Perceived
behavioral control to lead the behavioral intention. The Perceived behavioral control can have
positive or negative, direct or indirect effect to behavior through behavioral intention. The


14

more controllability is, the weaker the intention to do the behavior will be and vice versa, the
less controllability is, the stronger the intention to do the behavior.
2.2.3.4

Behavioral intention and behavior

Behavioral intention is defined as the readiness of someone to perform a particular
behavior. Behavioral intention is considered as the immediate predecessor of behavior
(Ajzen, 2002b). It is determined by the attitude towards the behavior, subjective norm and
perceived behavioral control. Each component has different predictive influence for the
importance in relation to the given behavior.
Behavior is the response of an individual in a particular situation with respect to a
given purpose. Behavior is a range of many actions or styles carried out by individual,
organizations in a given environment including systems or organisms around as well as the
physical environment. Ajzen said that “A behavior is a function of compatible intentions and
perceptions of behavioral control in that perceived behavioral control is expected to moderate

the effect of intention on behavior, such that a favorable intention produces the behavior only
when perceived behavioral control is strong”.
2.2.4 Conceptual framework
The original model of Ajzen includes five components as below:

Figure 2: The Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991)