Increasing the validity of self-reports of behavior in a smoking in children investigation.

As part of a large longitudinal study designed to evaluate certain social psychological strategies to deter smoking in children, a search for a means of increasing the validity of self-reports of smoking led to the development of a 3-step procedure. In 2 separate experiments, experimental groups of 86 13-yr-old children were first shown how specimens of their saliva could be analyzed for nicotine content by a mass spectrometer. The children were requested to produce saliva specimens. Finally, self-reports of smoking behavior were obtained. In the control groups of 84 Ss, only self-reports of smoking behavior were obtained. Results suggest that this procedure significantly increased the validity of self-reports of smoking behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)