Poster Presentation
Friday, July 13, 2007
9:30 AM - 10:15 AM
Friday, July 13, 2007
3:15 PM - 4:00 PM
Factors Affecting the Progression from Experimental to Regular Smoking in Adolescence and Young Adulthood
Sunhee Park, PhD, MPH, RN, College of Nursing Science, Kyunghee University, Seoul, South Korea
| Learning Objective #1: understand that there are different trajectories about young people’s smoking behavior.
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| Learning Objective #2: understand important factors affecting the transition to a higher level of young people’s smoking.
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It is also well established that most people begin smoking before the age of 20. Most experimental smokers progress toward regular smoking, and heavier smoking has more detrimental impacts on health. Therefore, it is essential to prevent people from becoming regular smokers. However, the progression to regular smoking has not been explored thoroughly. This study examined personal, environmental, and behavioral factors that affect the transition from experimental to regular smoking during adolescence, based on the Problem Behavior Theory. This study analyzed the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. At baseline, the U.S. participants were in grades 7 through 12. This study examined: (a) the effects of factors at baseline on the transition from experimental smoking at baseline to regular smoking at Year 1 and (b) the effects of factors at baseline increasing the risk for current regular smoking at Year 1 as compared to former regular smoking at Year 1, after excluding experimental smoking at Year 1. Principal component analysis was conducted to combine multiple items into a single variable. Multiple imputation was performed to handle missing data. Finally, logistic regression was applied in order to examine which factors affect the risk of the transition to regular smoking among adolescents, while taking into account weight and clustering to incorporate complex sampling methods. Statistically significant factors affecting the transition to regular smoking were: Blacks compared to Whites, younger age, a higher number of friends who smoked, marijuana use, alcohol use, and poorer GPA. Important factors increasing risk for keeping smoking regularly, compared to reducing the amount of cigarette use, were older age, illicit drug use, and cigarette availability at home. Adolescent smoking behavior was influenced by diverse factors such as other risk behaviors and friends. Thus, collaborative approaches are necessary to prevent adolescents from transitioning to a higher level of smoking.