Consistent with study hypotheses, perceived peer cigarette approval/use was associated with strong intentions to smoke for adolescents characterized by high levels of agency compared to adolescents characterized by low levels of agency. Research on smoker prototypes suggests that adolescents associate smokers with an image of rebelliousness, maturity, leadership, and coolness (Dinh, Sarason, Peterson, & Onstad, 1995; Gerrard et al., 2002) and that such prototypical images are related to willingness to smoke even among children as young as nine years old (Wills et al., 2007). This prototype may be particularly salient to agentic adolescents given that they value dominance in their social relationships. That is, agentic adolescents may view smoking as an effective means of projecting an image of being dominant, in control, and appearing cool, and thus, eliciting respect and achieving social status in a peer group that is approving of cigarette use.
