Study findings show that the Smoking Prevention Refusal Instrument: Efficacy, Expectations, Expectancies (SPRIE3) is both valid and reliable. The study concluded that the SPRIE3 can be used to measure a person's skill in refusing social pressures to smoke. The instrument reflects the principles of Social Cognitive Theory, which holds that individuals can manage their behavior by learning skills and techniques for developing and maintaining the behavior under various circumstances. Because of the study design, however, results are limited to a predominately White, middle class, sixth-grade population. The development of SPRIE3 involved researcher consultation with a panel of experts who represented specialty areas of adolescent research, tobacco prevention programs, and instrument development. The questionnaire developed consisted of 78 items, and responses to all items were arranged in a four-point Likert scale. The instrument was revised after being field-tested with three sixth graders. The revised instrument was pilot-tested for test-retest stability with 10 classrooms (n=166) of Ohio sixth-grade students in the spring of 1997. Sixth graders were selected for the testing because this is a common grade for a psychosocial smoking prevention program intervention. 5 tables and 31 references