Griesler, Pamela C.
Kandel, Denise B.
Davies, Mark
Ethnic Differences in Predictors of Initiation and Persistence of Adolescent Cigarette Smoking in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth
Nicotine and Tobacco Research 4,1 (February 2002): 79-93.
Also: http://ntr.oxfordjournals.org/content/4/1/79.abstract
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Carfax Publishing Company ==> Taylor & Francis
Keyword(s): Adolescent Behavior; Behavior Problems Index (BPI); CESD (Depression Scale); Child Health; Child Self-Administered Supplement (CSAS); Cigarette Use (see Smoking); Depression (see also CESD); Educational Aspirations/Expectations; Ethnic Differences; Hispanics; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Parent Supervision/Monitoring; Peers/Peer influence/Peer relations; Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC);

Aims: To identify and compare predictors of adolescent smoking initiation and persistence among African American, Hispanic and White adolescents in a longitudinal national sample.

Design: The sample includes 1537 mother-child dyads from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). Family, youth, peer and sociodemographic risk and protective factors were analyzed.

Findings: White adolescents reported the highest rates of smoking initiation and persistence; African Americans and Hispanics the lowest. Multivariate analyses revealed mostly common and few ethnic-specific predictors of smoking initiation and persistence. For initiation, maternal current smoking, child age, child problem behavior, and perceived peer pressure to smoke were predictive across ethnic groups; female gender and ineffective parenting were predictive among Whites only. For persistence, child age, child problem behavior and perceived scholastic competence were predictive across ethnic groups; negative mood was predictive among Whites only.

Conclusions: More common than unique factors predict smoking initiation and persistence among adolescents of different ethnicity. However, the power to detect ethnicity-by-predictor interactions with respect to persistence was low. Social factors are more important for smoking initiation, whereas individual factors are more important for persistence, although child problem behaviors are common determinants both of initiation and persistence. With few exceptions, universal anti-smoking interventions should be targeted to youths of different ethnicity. (Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, 2002.)

Miles, Jeremy N. V.
Weden, Margaret M.
Is the Intergenerational Transmission of Smoking From Mother to Child Mediated by Children’s Behavior Problems?
Nicotine and Tobacco Research 14,9 (September 2012): 1012-1018.
Also: http://ntr.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/02/07/ntr.ntr328.abstract
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Cigarette Use (see Smoking); Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Modeling, Laten Class Analaysis/Latent Transition Analysis; Modeling, Logit; Mothers, Behavior; Pre/post Natal Behavior; Smoking (see Cigarette Use);

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Introduction: A previous paper used latent class analysis to assign individuals to 1 of 4 adolescent/young adult smoking trajectory classes and then established an association between maternal smoking before, during, and after pregnancy and these classes. In this paper, we examine one possible pathway for this relationship: that maternal smoking during pregnancy may set off a behavioral trajectory which increases the likelihood of problem behaviors generally, of which smoking is one manifestation.

Methods: We used the Behavior Problems Index measure from age 8 through age 12 as a potential mediator. We used a path analysis modeling approach within a multinomial logistic regression (using Mplus) to estimate direct and indirect effects (via behavioral problems) between maternal smoking pattern and child trajectory class.

Results: We found small but statistically significant indirect effects via behavioral problems from maternal smoking to child smoking trajectory for membership in all 3 smoking classes, relative to the nonsmoking trajectory, indicating partial mediation. Mediated effects were associated with maternal smoking after pregnancy, no statistically significant mediated effects were found for smoking before or during pregnancy.

Conclusions: The results provided no evidence that the effects of maternal smoking during pregnancy on child smoking trajectory are mediated by problem behavior. Effects from smoking after birth to child smoking trajectory appear to be partially mediated by problem behavior, supporting a behavioral rather than physiological effect of smoking during pregnancy but not ruling out more complex physiological pathways.

Thompson, Ann B.
Moon-Howard, J.
Messeri, P. A.
Smoking Cessation Advantage Among Adult Initiators: Does It Apply to Black Women?
Nicotine and Tobacco Research 13,1 (January 2011): 15-21
Cohort(s): Young Women
Publisher: Carfax Publishing Company ==> Taylor & Francis
Keyword(s): Cigarette Use (see Smoking); Racial Differences; Smoking (see Cigarette Use);

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

INTRODUCTION: Smokers who initiate as adults are more likely to quit than those who initiate as adolescents. Black women are more likely than White women to initiate smoking in adulthood and are less likely to quit. There is a paucity of research examining whether the smoking cessation advantage among adult initiators applies to Black women. The study objective is to examine race differences in the effect of developmental stage of smoking initiation on number of years until cessation among Black and White women.

METHODS: Data were extracted from the National Longitudinal Survey of Young Women, a national cohort of women between the ages of 49 and 61 years in 2003. The analytic sample comprised 1,008 White women and 271 Black women with a history of smoking. Survival analysis procedures were utilized to address the study objective.

RESULTS: Racial disparities in smoking cessation were most evident among women who initiated smoking as adults. White young adult initiators had a 31% increased hazard of smoking cessation advantage (adjusted hazards ratio [HR]: 1.31, 95% CI: 1.04-1.65) over adolescent initiators, whereas Black young adult initiators had no smoking cessation advantage (adjusted HR: 0.85, CI: 95% 0.55-1.30) over adolescent initiators.

CONCLUSIONS: Prior observations that smoking initiation in adulthood is associated with high rates of cessation do not apply to black women. To contribute to the reduction of disparities in women's cessation efforts to prevent initiation should target young adult women, particularly Black young adult women.