THE MORAL IDENTITY OF YOUTH WHO DO NOT SMOKE: INTERNALIZATION PREDICTS THEIR PREFERENCE TOWARDS SMOKING AND NON-SMOKING BEHAVIOUR

A mature sense of moral identity influences psycho-social behaviour and leads to less engagement in risk behaviour activities such as smoking. This study aims to identify whether moral identity (internalization, symbolization) and gender are predictive factors of emotional valence in response to smoking and non-smoking images.  Youth-aged participants (N=347) viewed a series of smoking and non-smoking images and rated their emotional valence by using the Self-assessment Manikin. They also responded to the internalization and symbolization items on the Moral Identity Scale.  The combination of gender and internalization factors explained the significant variance of emotional valence in smoking (12%) and non-smoking (7%) respectively.  Participants with low internalization exhibited 2.4 odds to experience high emotional valence from the smoking images than those with high internalization. Internalization also indicated a significant predictor of emotional valence in non-smoking images. Internalization is a dominant trait rather than symbolization in predicting smoking and non-smoking behaviour. Gender interplays with internalization to provide an insightful explanation of emotional variance in smoking and non-smoking behaviour. Implication on public health program among youth-aged group is highlighted.