title: The African American Youth Smoking Experience: An Overview.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Beginning in the late 1970s, a very sharp decline in cigarette smoking prevalence was observed among African American (AA) high school seniors compared with a more modest decline among whites. This historic decline resulted in a lower prevalence of cigarette smoking among AA youth that has persisted for several decades.
  
  
  METHODS
  We synthesized information contained in the research literature and tobacco industry documents to provide an account of past influences on cigarette smoking behavior among AA youth to help understand the reasons for these historically lower rates of cigarette smoking.
  
  
  RESULTS
  While a number of protective factors including cigarette price increases, religiosity, parental opposition, sports participation, body image, and negative attitudes towards cigarette smoking may have all played a role in maintaining lower rates of cigarette smoking among AA youth as compared to white youth, the efforts of the tobacco industry seem to have prevented the effectiveness of these factors from carrying over into adulthood.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Continuing public health efforts that prevent cigarette smoking initiation and maintain lower cigarette smoking rates among AA youth throughout adulthood have the potential to help reduce the negative health consequences of smoking in this population.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  While AA youth continue to have a lower prevalence of cigarette smoking than white youth, they are still at risk of increasing their smoking behavior due to aggressive targeted marketing by the tobacco industry. Because AAs suffer disproportionately from tobacco-related disease, and have higher incidence and mortality rates from lung cancer, efforts to prevent smoking initiation and maintain lower cigarette smoking rates among AA youth have the potential to significantly lower lung cancer death rates among AA adults.
authors.affiliation: Office on Smoking and Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA; bgarrett@cdc.gov.
authors.forename: Bridgette E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Garrett
authors.affiliation: Tobacco Related Disease Research Program, University of California Office of the President, Oakland, CA;
authors.forename: Phillip S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Gardiner
authors.affiliation: Follow the Signs: Raise Awareness, Atlanta, GA;
authors.forename: La Tanisha C
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.affiliation: Health Management and Policy Division, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA.
authors.forename: Terry F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Pechacek
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000208:ethnology; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015438:Health Behavior; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D015995:Prevalence; D012907:Smoking / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000639:trends; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D019460:Tobacco Industry