Intention to avoid smoking of vietnamese adolecent

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.. Besides, Int

INTENTION TO AVOID SMOKING OF VIETNAMESE ADOLECENT

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

INTENTION TO AVOID SMOKING OF VIETNAMESE ADOLECENT

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 blue-collar 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

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

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

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: http://tobaccoatlas.org/products/cigarette_consumption/fig_b/)

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 smokers 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

non-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

Furthermore, the Report shows that 3 billion people are now covered by national tobacco campaigns As a result, hundreds of millions of nonsmokers are less likely to start

anti-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)

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

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

1.4.1 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

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

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, white-collar 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(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

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)

After examining of the models presented previously, together with other studies related to determining factors for behavior of Sentosa and Mat, 2012; Ingram et al., 2000, the components have been changed to be more suitable with the direction of research and the theoretical framework applied in this study is displayed as following:

Figure 3: Conceptual Framework of factors influence to intention to avoid smoking

With conceptual framework, we have the research hypothesis as following:

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

Chapter 3 – Research Methodologies

This chapter 3 provided the information about the overview of method to conduct the study like research instrument to data collection Besides, the data analysis techniques were clearly described including descriptive statistics, factor analysis, multiple regression and path analysis Last but not least, it gives the full result of reliability test, validity test and factor analysis for all the variables in the model

In this study, researcher applied the mixed-method but the quantitative method is focused and qualitative method just support for quantitative method Qualitative researchers aim to gather an in-depth understanding of smoking behavior and the reasons cause smoking behavior Basing on the detailed factors relating to smoking behavior from qualitative, the researcher built the quantitative questions

Several definitions for mixed methods have emerged over the years that incorporate various elements of methods, research processes, philosophy, and research design

An early definition of mixed methods came from writers in the field of evaluation Greene, Caracelli, and Graham (1989) emphasized the mixing of methods and the disentanglement of methods and philosophy (i.e., paradigms)

Mixed method community which has “gone through a relatively rapid growth spurt…it has acquired a formal methodology that did not exist before and is subscribed to by

an emerging community of practitioners and methodologists across the disciplines In the process of developing a distinct identity, as compared with other major research communities

of researchers in the social and human sciences, mixed methods have been adopted as the de facto third alternative or “third methodological movement” (Tashakkori and Teddlie, 2010b)

Mixed methods is a “research in which the investigator collects, analyses, mixes, and draws inferences from both quantitative and qualitative data in a single study or a program of inquiry” A more comprehensive definition is provided by Creswell and Plano Clark (in 2007) who define mixed methods as follows: Mixed methods research is a research design with philosophical assumptions as well as methods of inquiry As a methodology, it involves philosophical assumptions that guide the direction of the collection and analysis of data and the mixture of qualitative and quantitative data in a single study or series of studies Its central premise is that the use of quantitative and qualitative approaches in combination provides a better understanding of research problems that either approach alone (Journal of Mixed Methods, 2006)

In this study, researcher defined mixed-method designs as those that include at least one quantitative method (designed to collect numbers) and one qualitative method (designed

to collect words), where neither type of method is inherently linked to any particular inquiry paradigm

Open Questionaire

Qualitative Research

Draft Question Pilot Study

Revised Questionnaire

Quantitative

Research

Data Analysis

Conclusion and Recommendati on

In research process for this study, Qualitative research and Quantitative research are two main steps

Qualitative research is a method of inquiry employed in many different academic disciplines, traditionally in the social sciences, but also in market research and further contexts Qualitative researchers aim to gather an in-depth understanding of human behavior and the reasons that govern such behavior The qualitative method investigates the why and how of decision making, not just what, where, when Hence, smaller but focused samples are more often used than large samples (Denzin, Norman K & Lincoln, Yvonna S (Eds.), 2005) For this study, qualitative research helped the author to find the reasons why people smoke or not smoke, how often they smoke or when they smoke most It also presented the factors influence respondent’s habit of smoking or not smoking, the tendency of smoking in the future and how can they avoid smoking or advising other to not smoke in future

The results from qualitative research will be used to design the questionnaires in quantitative research stage In this research, researcher first designed some open questions and conduct in depth interview with 8 people including 5 white-collar workers, 2 blue-collar workers and 1 students The rate of men and women is equal Content of questionnaire is general and opened for respondents have opportunity to show their opinion including:

- What are the advantages of smoking in your opinion?

- What are the disadvantages of smoking in your opinion?

- What are the factors that affect you in smoking or not smoking?

- Who influence you most in smoking or not smoking?

- When do you want to smoke?

- Why do you smoke /or not smoke?

- How many cigarettes do you smoke every day?

- How long have you smoked?

- What can you do to decrease/ avoid smoking or help other people not to smoke in future?

The next step is Quantitative research Quantitative research refers to the systematic empirical investigation of social phenomena via statistical, mathematical or computational techniques The objective of quantitative research is to develop and employ mathematical models, theories and/or hypotheses pertaining to phenomena The process of measurement is central to quantitative research because it provides the fundamental connection between empirical observation and mathematical expression of quantitative relationships Quantitative data is any data that is in numerical form such as statistics, percentages, etc (Given, Lisa M., 2008)

Based on interviewing, researcher will have depth understanding and chose the suitable and necessary information that many people has same idea on that, combine to literature review to design questionnaires The factors that cover necessary information is around four overall contents including the attitude of people towards smoking, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and intention towards smoking

3.3.1 Target Population

Vietnamese adolescents age from 15 to 35 years including men and women They may be are currently smokers and not smokers They are living in Ho Chi Minh City and come from three groups of students, white-collar workers and blue-collar workers

3.3.2 Sample Size

In term of determining sample size of the study, According to Comfrey and Lee (1992), “the adequacy of sample size might be evaluated very roughly on the following scale: 50 – very poor, 100 – poor, 200 – fair, 300 – good” For this study, the sample size

of 360 is good to achieve representativeness and variety of answer partly

Firstly, researcher proceeded to send survey with questions for 2 groups including 3 sub-groups Researcher already sent 380 surveys and expected to collect 360 surveys However, the result collected was 330 qualified surveys as below:

Group 2: Women

For sub groups of White-collar workers and Student, the number of men is fairly similar (65 samples of men and 60 samples of women), but for Blue-collar worker, the number of men is bigger than women in sample (65 samples of men with 15 samples of women) In these studies, the women are used for purpose of comparison and contrast For Blue-collar worker group, the number of women collected was only 15 while the expected and target number is 60 samples This is a limitation of the research because most of woman workers were shy of answering the survey and they transferred the survey to man colleges However, it did not affect a lot to the result

The reason why researcher chose sample from three above groups is that they represent for all different demographics It will reflect fully about the perception of people to smoking

3.3.3 Sampling Method And Data Collection

As mentioned before, the main tool for this research is survey questionnaire so approach a great quantity of respondent in short time is very important Besides, limit to human resource and budget also affects sampling selection Therefore, convenient sampling, (a non-probability sampling method) was used to select respondents Although this method

do not create representativeness and generalization like random sampling (a kind of probability sample) (Saunders & Thornhill, 2003), it could help the researcher obtain information quickly and economically

Primary data for this research was collected from the questionnaires A organized questionnaire was delivered to target population in three following ways Firstly, the questionnaires were sent through email Secondly, researcher came to Nguyen Tat Thanh University in District 4 and Phuong Nam College in Tan Phu District, Ho Chi Minh City and directly delivered the questionnaire and kindly asked teachers and students for their cooperation in providing the information Thirdly, researcher came to Tan Binh Industrial Zone in Ho Chi Minh City and handed the questionnaires to workers This process had the support from some friends who are the team leaders of workers in some companies The researcher explained objective and asked for complete questionnaire This process took place for 1 week from 5pm to 7pm every day which is rush hour at Tan Binh industrial zone

well-3.3.4 Research Instrument And Questionnaire Design

The most effective tool was the questionnaire that was built based on major concepts and variables used for this research Firstly, the questionnaire design was started with developing a sound theoretical framework From the data collected from qualitative research, basing on theoretical model, questionnaire was established All suitable questions were raised to ensure the reliability and validity of all scales of the research The questions are divided into two parts, part I includes 6 questions of nominal scale and ordinal scale and part II includes 19 questions which were formulated on a seven-point Likert-scale ranging

from 1 to 7, equivalent to strongly disagree, disagree, fairly disagree, neutral, fairly agree, agree and strongly agree respectively

All items in Part II is presented in table below:

Table 1: Constructs and indicators of behavior

(Developed from Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980, Moan, 2005 and built from qualitative

I think that I can decrease the stress when smoking ATT1

I think that I am perspicacious & cheery when smoking ATT2

I think that smoking will cause me the effects such as lung cancer, throat cancer, brain hemorrhage

Parents/Guardian have not allowed me to smoke from the time I was a child

Perceived

Behavioral

Control

I can definitely refuse the smoking invitation from other people

PBC4

Intention

to avoid

smoking

I intend to advice my friends, relatives to stop smoking INT2

I intend to join some smoking prevention campaigns next time if I am appealed

According to Miller, 2000, reliability test was designed to administrate the internal consistency or homogeneity of the variables among data set then level of correlation between individual items could be indication of entire scale reliability

Test validity is the extent to which a test accurately measures what it purports to measure

In the fields of psychological testing and educational testing, “Validity refers to the degree to which evidence and theory support the interpretations of test scores entailed by proposed uses of tests” (American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, & National Council on Measurement in Education, 1999) On a test with high validity, the items are closely linked to the test’s intended focus After testing the reliability of each variable,

researcher conducted data analysis Factor analysis is a technique of data reduction For example, factor analysis can be used to identify the underlying components that explain the correlations among a set of variables By this way, it is possible to apply a smaller set of measures to explain a substantial allocation of the total variance that is explained by all original variables Factor analysis makes researcher not only cover the valid variables into relevant group and delete the invalid variables but also check the correlation or reliability of the variables in the same scale

Pearson correlation test is applied to measure the degree to which there is a linear regression between pair of metric variables Basing on the result, it can be used to explore the relationship between one continuous dependent variable and a number of continuous independent variables or predictor

Chapter 4 – Data Analysis And Research Results

This chapter aims to present data analysis techniques that were clearly described including descriptive statistics, factor analysis, multiple regression and path analysis It also shows the statistical outcome resulted from analysis of collected data Those outcomes will be interpreted and discussed to establish foundation for recommendation as mentioned objectives

This research was conducted within Ho Chi Minh zone with aim to collect 360 well- responded questionnaires from the adolescent 380 surveys were distributed and the researcher collected 340 ones In 340 responses collected, 10 were stamped out because it was not completed in all questions and researcher chose only 330 qualified surveys for SPSS analysis

In this research, sample demographics were examined by age, educational level, occupation, marital status, income and current status of smoking Following figures will present those clearly

Firstly, respondents’ profile is taken in to account The figure shows that more than a haft of respondents has never smoked (covering 65.8%) The age is divided into 3 groups from 15 to 22, 23 to 28 and 29 to 35 years old and they come from three groups of occupation including Student, White-collar workers and Blue-collar workers In this sample, just 1.5% of respondents are divorced and 1.2% is widowed Nearly two third of them (72.1 %) is single and the remaining is married More than a haft of them (58.18%) has low income of fewer than five millions Vietnam dong per month This number reflects the reality of income of blue-collar workers and student respondents in our society One third (34.24%) of respondents has medium in come from five to fifteen millions Vietnam dong and 7.58% of

them have high income more than fifteen millions Vietnam dong per month About the educational level, just 14.2% of respondents graduated from high school, most of them in level of under graduate (college or university) (51.2%) The numbers on level of vocational school and graduate (master or higher) are similar of about 17%

Table 2: The profile of Respondents (N=330)

Figure 5: Percentages of Gender

Male 51.9%

Female40.9%

MaleFemale