The predictors of adolescent smoking

One thousand nine hundred and forty-two junior and senior high school students completed a self-report survey instrument containing measures of cigarette smoking and selected intrapersonal, peer pressure and family functioning variables. Results revealed that peer pressure was significantly associated with smoking behavior across all age x gender cohorts, but that intrapersonal factors were significantly more important to the smoking behavior of 12-13 year-old girls than same-age boys. Within the 14-15 year-old age group, one peer pressure variable (friends' approval of smoking) emerged as a significantly more important predictor of girls' than boys' smoking. Taken together, results suggest that while smoking prevention programs based on social reinforcement principles may be sufficient for adolescent boys, young adolescent girls are likely to benefit from programs which incorporate both peer resistance training and developmental strategies targeting conduct disorder.