title: The Big-Five Personality Traits, Maternal Smoking during Pregnancy, and Educational Qualifications as Predictors of Tobacco Use in a Nationally Representative Sample.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the associations between the Big-Five personality traits, parental social class, maternal smoking status during pregnancy, childhood cognitive ability, education and occupation, and tobacco use in a longitudinal birth cohort study.
  
  
  METHODS
  17,415 babies born in Great Britain in 1958 and followed up at 11, 33, and 50 years of age. Lifelong tobacco use status (ever/never) and current tobacco use status (yes/no) at age 50 years were the outcome measures respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Logistic regression analyses showed that among the 5,840 participants with complete data, whilst maternal smoking status, educational qualifications, and all the big-5 personality traits were significant predictors of adult lifelong tobacco use; educational qualifications, own occupational levels, traits Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Openness were significant predictors of current smoking status. In lifelong measure men tended to have a greater rate of tobacco use than women (52.1% in men and 49.2% in women). However, the sex effect on lifelong tobacco use ceased to be significant once a set of socio-economic and psychological variables in childhood and adulthood were taken into account.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Educational qualifications and the Big-Five personality traits were significantly associated with both current and lifelong tobacco use status.
authors.affiliation: Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom.|ESRC Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies, Institute of Education, University College London, London, WC1H 0AL, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom.|BI: Norwegian Business School, Nydalsveien 37, 0484, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Furnham
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009790:Occupations; D010551:Personality / Q000502:physiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011379:Prognosis; D012907:Smoking / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012923:Social Class; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D064424:Tobacco Use / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006113:United Kingdom; D055815:Young Adult