title: Movie exposure to smoking cues and adolescent smoking onset: a test for mediation through peer affiliations.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether the effect of movie exposure to smoking on adolescent smoking onset is mediated through increased affiliation with peers who smoke.
  
  
  METHODS
  A longitudinal study was conducted with a sample of 5th- 8th graders; persons who were nonsmokers at the baseline assessment (N = 2,614) were followed up 18 months later. Movie exposure to smoking cues was assessed at baseline with a rigorous coding procedure.
  
  
  METHODS
  A school-based survey and follow-up telephone interview determined whether the participant smoked cigarettes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Longitudinal structural modeling analysis indicated movie-smoking exposure was related to smoking onset both through an indirect effect involving increased affiliation with peer smokers and through a direct effect. The analysis controlled for demographics, parenting style, rebelliousness and sensation seeking, school performance, parental smoking, and sibling smoking; several of these variables also had mediated or direct effects to smoking onset.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The effect of movie exposure on adolescent smoking onset is attributable in part to a social mechanism. Implications of media effects for prevention are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461, USA. wills@aecom.yu.edu
authors.forename: Thomas A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Wills
authors.forename: James D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Sargent
authors.forename: Mike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stoolmiller
authors.forename: Frederick X
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: Gibbons
authors.forename: Keilah A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Worth
authors.forename: Sonya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dal Cin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D002648:Child; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009040:Motion Pictures; D009513:New Hampshire / Q000453:epidemiology; D010379:Peer Group; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D014707:Vermont / Q000453:epidemiology