Psychosocial variables in a cohort of students in grades 8 and 11: a comparison of current and never smokers.
BACKGROUND
Specific hypotheses regarding putative mechanisms by which stressful life events might be related to smoking initiation among adolescents have been tested cross-sectionally on a cohort of 1598 grade 6 students in Scarborough, Canada. The purpose of this study was to examine the utility of these cross-sectional models in accounting for current smoking as compared to never smoking when this cohort was in grades 8 and 11.


METHODS
Current smoking was defined as reported regular or occasional smoking. Logistic regression and multiple regression models were tested separately for each gender and grade with variables entered in prespecified steps.


RESULTS
Current smoking is more strongly related to psychosocial variables and environmental variables among older male adolescents as compared to younger ones. In older female adolescents, current smoking appears to be more strongly related to attitude variables and less strongly related to psychosocial variables than among younger female adolescents. There is some evidence that grade 11 males may use cigarettes as a coping strategy for depression.


CONCLUSIONS
Male and female students differ in how stress and a range of psychosocial factors are interrelated with regards to current smoking and these relationships appear to change over time.
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. jkoval@biostats.uwo.ca
John J
JJ
Koval
Linda L
LL
Pederson
Stella S H
SS
Chan
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D009864:Ontario / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*