title: Adolescent cigarette smoking: health-related behavior or normative transgression?
abstract: Relations among measures of adolescent behavior were examined to determine whether cigarette smoking fits into a structure of problem behaviors-behaviors that involve normative transgression-or a structure of health-related behaviors, or both. In an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of 1782 male and female high school adolescents, four first-order problem behavior latent variables-sexual intercourse experience, alcohol abuse, illicit drug use, and delinquency-were established and together were shown to reflect a second-order latent variable of problem behavior. Four first-order latent variables of health-related behaviors-unhealthy dietary habits, sedentary behavior, unsafe behavior, and poor dental hygiene-were also established and together were shown to reflect a second-order latent variable of health-compromising behavior. The structure of relations among those latent variables was modeled. Cigarette smoking had a significant and substantial loading only on the problem-behavior latent variable; its loading on the health-compromising behavior latent variable was essentially zero. Adolescent cigarette smoking relates strongly and directly to problem behaviors and only indirectly, if at all, to health-compromising behaviors. Interventions to prevent or reduce adolescent smoking should attend more to factors that influence problem behaviors.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado, Boulder 80309-0483, USA. jessor@colorado.edu
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Turbin
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jessor
authors.forename: F M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Costa
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003120:Colorado; D004032:Diet; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D008960:Models, Psychological; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology