A number of longitudinal studies have suggested that attitudes and beliefs regarding smokers and smoking are important predictors of tobacco use in adolescence. Adolescents with more positive attitudes towards smokers (Dinh, Sarason, Peterson, & Onstad, 1995) or towards smoking and its consequences (Chassin, Presson, Sherman, & Edwards, 1991) are more likely to initiate a smoking habit. Dinh and colleagues (1995), for example, found that positive perceptions of smokers (e.g., healthy, cool, good-looking, independent) and negative perceptions of nonsmokers (e.g., uncool) among a predominately European-American sample of 1,663 children in the 5th and 7th grades predicted subsequent smoking in the 9th grade. Conversely, children who perceived smokers as 'dirty' or 'uncool' were less likely than their peers to become weekly smokers by the 9th grade. Between the 5th and 7th grades, children's perceptions of smokers tended to become more positive while their perceptions of nonsmokers became more negative. Notably, a general negative attitude toward smoking has also been associated longitudinally with an increased likelihood of smoking cessation among a sample of adolescent smokers in the Netherlands (Engels, Knibbe, deVries, & Drop, 1998).