Do researcher-derived classifications of youths' smoking behavior correspond with youths' characterizations of their behavior?

Aims: To describe the categories employed by researchers to describe adolescents' smoking behavior and to determine how these various categorizations compare with youths' self-defined smoking status. Study selection: A search of the PubMed and Science Direct databases, limited to articles in the English language, published between January 2002 and November 2007. Data extraction: Employing a mixed methods approach, several categories of youths' smoking status were obtained from a literature review and subsequently reproduced by using responses to detailed questionnaire items. Associations between the researcher-derived smoking categories (from the literature review) and the youths' self-reported smoking status, from survey data, were determined. Results: The categories of smoking status, from the literature review, varied in definition and in the number of categories. The associations between the literature-based categories and the youths' self-reported smoking status were modest. Conclusions: Researcher-derived categories of youths' smoking status may not adequately encapsulate youths' perceptions of their own smoking behavior. There is a need to better describe adolescents' smoking behavior with special consideration of the ways in which adolescents characterize their own smoking behavior.