This assessment difficulty speaks to the need for a complementary approach to understand who occasional smokers are and what factors underlie their smoking behavior. One challenge of survey research among occasional smokers is that many do not consider themselves smokers ( Berg et al., 2009 Berg et al., 2010 Thompson et al., 2007), which may bias recruiting and subject reporting. Population-based survey research has offered a quantitative characterization of the population, including psychosocial correlates and risk factors ( Nguyen & Zhu, 2009 Pierce, White, & Messer, 2009 Trinidad et al., 2009 White, et al., 2009). The increasing proportion of college student smokers who occasionally smoke and associated risks of occasional smoking further underscore the importance of understanding the choices behind this pattern of smoking. For example, studies that follow longitudinal trajectories for occasional smokers in college estimate that 25–50% quit, 35–50% maintain occasional smoking patterns long term, and 15–25% progress to daily smoking ( Kenford et al., 2005 Wetter et al., 2004 White, 2009 White, et al., 2009). Several studies demonstrate the potential risks for progressing to more ingrained smoking patterns and chronic nicotine dependence by occasional smoking college students. Most college students who smoke occasionally have lower rates of dependence ( Ames et al., 2009) and smoke in a narrow range of situational contexts such as on weekends, while drinking alcohol, and socially around other smokers ( Moran, et al., 2004 Shiffman, Kirchner, Ferguson, & Scharf, 2009 Sutfin, et al., 2009). For example, 65% of college student tobacco users are occasional smokers ( Moran, Wechsler, & Rigotti, 2004). The most predominant group of young smokers are those who smoke occasionally. Young adult smokers, including college students, are diverse in their smoking patterns and range from daily heavy cigarette smokers to infrequent puffers ( Sutfin, et al., 2009). Yet the mean age for smoking initiation in the United States is 17.5, and for initiation of daily smoking is 20.7 ( Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2010), which provides clear evidence that young adulthood is a vulnerable developmental period in which recently initiated smokers are susceptible to long-term dependence. Many young adult smokers believe they will eventually quit ( Hines, Fretz, & Nollen, 1998) and are confident in their ability to do so ( Sutfin, Reboussin, McCoy, & Wolfson, 2009). Varying estimates are found within college populations SAMHSA survey data from 2009 estimate that 27% of college students are current smokers ( Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2010) while Monitoring the Future survey data from 2009 estimate the rate to be lower (18%) ( Johnston, et al., 2010). Despite recent trends for decreasing prevalence of cigarette use among adults ( Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009) and children under 18 ( Johnston, O'Malley, Bachman, & Schulenberg, 2010), over one-third of young adults (ages 18–25) are current smokers (defined as any cigarette smoking in the past 30 days) ( Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2010).
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