Youth Cigarette Smoking Sparked By Many Factors

Main Category: Smoking / Quit Smoking
Article Date: 30 Dec 2005 - 5:00 PDT

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Having parents or friends who smoke, dropping out of high school and trying cigarettes at a young age are all linked to adolescents being more likely to become smokers.

A study based on a national sample of more than 14,000 young adults 21.8 years old on average found many common factors contribute to smoking among youth. Depression, for example, increases a young person's risk of becoming a smoker, as does finding cigarettes pleasurable when first trying them. Being a "novelty seeker" also tends to lead children and teens to smoke.

Overall, according to the study, minority youth are less likely than white to try cigarettes, become daily smokers once they do try cigarettes and become dependent on nicotine once becoming daily smokers. While graduating from high school lowers white and black adolescents' risk for smoking, a high school diploma actually increased smoking rates among Hispanics in the study.

[From: "Epidemiology and Correlates of Daily Smoking and Nicotine Dependence Among Young Adults in the United States" Contact: Denise B. Kandel, PhD, Columbia University, New York, N.Y.]

The American Journal of Public Health
The American Journal of Public Health is the monthly journal of the American Public Health Association, the oldest organization of public health professionals in the world. APHA is a leading publisher of public health-related books and periodicals promoting high scientific standards, action programs and policy for good health.

More information is available at http://www.apha.org.

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