NCJ Number
192620
Journal
Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Abuse Volume: 10 Issue: 4 Dated: 2001 Pages: 91-99
Date Published
2001
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This study examined the extent to which behavioral dysregulation in childhood (ages 10- to 12-years-old) predicted daily cigarette smoking in mid-adolescence.
Abstract
Cigarette smoking is one of the biggest causes of preventable mortality in the United States. The risk factors for smoking initiation have been examined extensively. The most important factors that contribute to smoking initiation by youth include smoking by parents and peers, depression symptoms, anxiety, conduct disorders, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder. This study analyzed the degree to which psychological dysregulation at ages 10-12 predicted cigarette smoking at age 16. The sample consisted of 208 16-year old adolescents who had completed their second follow-up evaluation between February 1996 and September 2000. The results show that daily smoking at age 16 was predicted by behavioral dysregulation with 67 percent classification accuracy. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) predicted daily smoking at age 16 with 82 percent classification accuracy. Another important factor that contributed to childhood cigarette smoking was parental smoking. If the father is a current smoker, the child is 3.42 times more likely to smoke, whereas if the mother is a current smoker the child is 2.18 times more likely more likely to smoke at age 16. These findings point to the influence of parental smoking, but this influence does not moderate the association between dysregulation and daily smoking. Thus, the results indicated that both individual (psychological dysregulation) and environmental factors (parental SUD and current smoking) contributed to daily smoking between childhood and adolescence.