Results emanating from smoking cessation programs suggest the necessity for a greater commitment to research for primary smoking prevention. Because of the early onset of smoking, more research must focus on adolescents and preadolescents who have not yet begun to smoke regularly. Three areas of concentrated study are proposed: (1) the initiation process rather than smoking maintenance; (2) concentration on younger populations rather than adults; and (3) the study of the onset of smoking prospectively rather than retrospectively. Two comprehensive social psychological models, chosen as most relevant for adolescent cigarette smokers, were used with junior and senior high school youth. Preliminary results indicated that nonsmoking subjects perceived nonsmokers as having more positive traits than smokers. Nonsmokers perceived more personal than situational control of their own nonsmoking behavior, and, in general, adolescents were perceived as being under strong situational control. (Author/BMW)