Psychosocial Predictors of Young Adolescent Cigarette Smoking: A Sixteen-Month,Three-Wave Longitudinal Study1

Understanding the psychosocial factors that predict cigarette smoking onset in young people is of crucial importance for prevention efforts. The present study examined prospective psychosocial predictors of smoking in a three-wave longitudinal data set. Similar in design to an earlier study by Chassin, Presson, Sherman, Corty, and Olshavsky (1984), the present study replicated their work, and extended it by (a) using composite predictors derived from exploratory factor analysis, (b) including prior behavior as a predictor, (c) using a design extended over three waves of data collection, and (d) using a sample composed primarily of urban teenagers. Subjects were 3295 7th-grade students at the beginning of the study. The subjects completed a questionnaire containing items tapping cigarette smoking behavior and psychosocial items that have previously been shown to predict smoking behavior. Forty-one psychosocial items on the Wave 1 (initial) questionnaire were factor analyzed, and five factors were retained. Subscale scores were constructed based on these factors and were used as predictors. Regression analyses were performed using the subscales and pretest smoking frequency to predict a continuous measure of smoking, and discriminant analyses were performed to predict transitions between qualitative levels of smoking. Prior smoking behavior was the most important predictor of future smoking. Four of the subscales, Social Disapproval, Risk Taking/Rebelliousness, Perceived Smoking Prevalence, and Motivation to Comply, were significant predictors. One subscale, Physical Consequences from Smoking, was not predictive of smoking in any of the analyses. The effect sizes cross-validated well. It is suggested that an integrative model of smoking initiation developed by Flay, d'Avernas, Best, Kersell, and Ryan (1983) best summarizes the results of the present study.     

Childhood Psychosocial Predictors of Adulthood Smoking,Alcohol Consumption,and Physical Activity1

This study prospectively addresses whether aspects of the childhood home environment (SES and parental divorce) and personality are predictive of smoking, alcohol consumption, and physical activity in middle adulthood. Subjects were 972 males and females who participated in the Terman Life-Cycle Study. Results of hierarchical regression analyses indicated that childhood unconscientiousness, cheerfulness, and parental divorce predicted adult smoking. Childhood unconscientiousness and sociability predicted adult alcohol consumption. Physical activity was predicted by a higher energy/activity level in childhood. Results suggest that the previously found associations between childhood characteristics and health-related behaviors over shorter periods are not simply reflective of early experimentation with such behaviors, but may be indicative of long-term lifestyle patterns.     

Preventing Adolescent Cigarette Smoking

Recent studies have supported the efficacy of approaches to smoking prevention that focus primary attention on social and psychological factors implicated in initiation of adolescent cigarette smoking. This article reports first year data from a large-scale smoking prevention study conducted within three geographic regions of New York State. The sample consists of 5,954 seventh graders from 56 middle/junior high schools. Schools were randomly assigned to (1) receive the Life Skills Training (LST) prevention program with a one-day teacher training workshop; (2) receive the LST prevention program with teacher training provided by video tape; or (3) serve as a comparison group. This study was designed to further test the efficacy of this type of smoking prevention program and to compare the relative effectiveness of two different types of provider training in an effort to learn more about the potential effectiveness of this prevention strategy when implemented under "real world" conditions. Pretest and posttest data were collected by questionnaire concerning self-reported tobacco use and several hypothesized mediating variables. Results indicate that the prevention program significantly impacted on several hypothesized mediating variables in a direction consistent with non-smoking. Within one region, the students in both experimental conditions reported significantly less current cigarette smoking and reported themselves less likely to smoke in the future than the students in the control condition.     

Cigarette Smoking and Panic Psychopathology

ABSTRACT— The present paper summarizes empirical evidence suggesting that smoking and panic problems often co-occur; that smoking is a risk factor for, and may serve to maintain, panic attacks and panic disorder; and that premorbid panic-specific vulnerability variables and full-blown panic problems are related to coping-oriented smoking motives and perhaps to the maintenance of smoking behavior. An integrative model is offered to stimulate further work on this topic, followed by future directions for research.     

Psychosocial Predictors of Wellness in College Students

The authors examined how the first 6 stages of psychosocial development predict wellness in undergraduate college students using the Measures of Psychosocial Development (Hawley, 1988 ) and the Perceived Wellness Survey (Adams, Bezner, & Steinhardt, 1997 ). Results indicated that 4 of the 6 stages predict wellness in college students. Clinical implications for counselors of this population are provided.     

Psychosocial Predictors of Acculturative Stress in Mexican Immigrants

Psychosocial predictors of acculturative stress were examined in a sample of adult Mexican immigrants in Los Angeles. Bivariate and multivariate analyses revealed that family dysfunction, geographical separation from family, nonpositive expectations for the future, and low income levels were significantly related to elevated levels of acculturative stress. The findings suggest that family closeness, hopefulness for the future, and financial resources may provide a buffer against acculturative Stressors experienced by migrating individuals. The findings highlight the importance of using culturally relevant clinical methods when assessing and treating immigrants and acculturating individuals.     

Social Discounting and Cigarette Smoking During Pregnancy

In this study, we examined the association between social discounting and smoking status in a cohort of pregnant cigarette smokers (n = 91), quitters (n = 27), or never‐smokers (n = 30). The smokers and quitters were participants in clinical trials on smoking cessation and relapse prevention, whereas the never‐smokers were controls in a study on nicotine withdrawal during pregnancy. Social discounting was assessed using a paper‐and‐pencil task that assesses the amount of hypothetical money a person is willing to forgo in order to share with individuals in their social network ranging from the person who is emotionally closest to them to a mere acquaintance. The amount that women were willing to forgo in order to share decreased hyperbolically as a function of social distance, with smokers exhibiting steeper discounting functions (i.e., less generosity) than quitters or never‐smokers; discounting functions of quitters and never‐smokers did not differ significantly. In multivariate analyses controlling for potential sociodemographic and other confounds, social discounting remained a significant predictor of smoking status among smokers versus quitters. Overall, these results suggest that individual differences in social discounting may be a factor influencing the choices that women make about quitting smoking upon learning of a pregnancy. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cigarette Smoking, Anxiety, and Depression

This review provides a detailed analysis of anxiety and depression as they relate to each stage of the cigarette smoking cycle: initiation, maintenance, and cessation with an emphasis on nicotine withdrawal. An analysis of the literature confirms that cigarette smoking is highly comorbid with anxiety disorders and clinical depression, and that this relationship appears to be moderated by factors such as age of the smoker, type of disorder, and level of nicotine dependence. Studies also offer evidence to suggest a relationship between smoking and both subclinical anxiety and depression. Research findings have not revealed whether common factors influence the development of anxiety, depression, and smoking, whether anxiety and depression lead to smoking, or whether the reverse is true. Nevertheless, a current understanding of the links among smoking, anxiety, and depression confirms current prevention and cessation techniques, as well as suggests new directions for research and clinical practice.     

Attitude and Norm Accessibility and Cigarette Smoking

Social norms and attitudes play a critical role in adolescent smoking initiation and maintenance. Focus theory predicts that making a norm more salient—and thereby temporarily increasing its accessibility from memory—will increase the influence of the norm on behavior for as long as the norm remains salient. Likewise, the process model of the attitude–behavior relationship predicts that accessible attitudes are more predictive of behavior. The present research examining the role of the chronic accessibility of smoking related normative beliefs and attitudes in predicting smoking behavior in college students. Attitude and norm accessibility independently accounted for significant variability in smoking behavior beyond that accounted for by traditional measures of attitude and subjective norm.     

Predictors of Smoking Status After Eight Years: The Interaction of Stages of Change and Addiction Variables

Abstract

With a smoking rate of 30% of the population Switzerland has one of the highest rates of all industrialised countries. Changes in smoking status over eight years are examined by analysing the course of non-smokers, former smokers and current smokers between 1987 and 1995. Stages of change and addiction variables, as well as their interaction, are analysed for 1987 as predictors of smoking status in 1995.A sample of 953 non-smokers and former and current smokers was interviewed in 1987 and followed up in 1995. Between 1987 and 1995 every fifth non-smoker (20.9%) began smoking. The higher one is in the stage hierarchy the higher the probability of forward than of backward movement. Within the stages of change the likelihood of cessation is moderated by addiction variables. Thus, in the case of contemplating smokers in 1987, the more cigarettes they smoked daily at that time the less likely they were to be former smokers by 1995, but for preparating smokers who had already made an attempt to quit the converse holds - the more they smoked in 1987, the more likely they were to be non-smokers eight years later. The same holds for former smokers in 1987: former moderate smokers then were more likely to relapse than former heavy smokers. The implications for prevention and intervention are discussed.     

Sensory Deprivation Used In the Reduction of Cigarette Smoking: Attitude Change Experiments In an Applied Context1

A series of three studies has investigated the effects of sensory deprivation on persuasibility. Cigarette smoking was used as the target of the persuasive messages. The technique appears to have a degree of success in bringing about smoking cessation or reduction for several months after a 24-hr. sensory deprivation session. Implications for attitude experimentation and for the application of research findings are discussed.     

An "Epidemic" Model of Adolescent Cigarette Smoking

The prevalence of regular smoking increases rapidly during adolescence. We applied modeling methods from the study of epidemic infectious disease to smoking behavior. Our "epidemic" models dealt with the process of transition among four states: nonsmoker (susceptible), trier (exposed), regular smoker (infected), and ex-smoker (recovered). The best fitting model was one in which the transition from nonsmoker to trier was a social contagion process where nonsmokers contacted either triers or regular smokers. All other transitions were treated as constant rate processes in which a constant proportion of eligible individuals made the transition in a given year. The recursive equation model embodying these assumptions was able to predict accurately the proportion of adolescents in each state in Grades 6–11. Our results support a "stage" model of smoking, suggesting that different psychological and physiological processes are involved in the initiation of smoking than in developing a habit of regular smoking. A possible sex difference was found in the non-contact transition between trier and smoker states, with the transition being more probable in females than in males.     

Cigarette Smoking and Food Consumption in the United States1

Correlations were computed between United States per capita consumption of cigarettes and 41 different foods for the years 1964–1977 and 1968–1973. There were significant negative correlations between consumption of cigarettes and sugar. Few other foods showed any relationship to cigarette consumption. These findings corroborate the results of a recent human laboratory study of cigarette smoking and food consumption and a recent animal study of the effects of nicotine on food consumption, taste preferences, and body weight. Taken together, these studies suggest that the inverse relationship between cigarette smoking and body weight may be partially explained by changes in consumption of sweet-tasting high caloric foods.     

Psychosocial Predictors of Intent to Emigrate Among Portuguese Adolescents

Information about the intent to emigrate was collected for a sample of 960 adolescents living in the northern region of Portugal. This question was part of a detailed questionnaire designed to assess specific issues concerning social representations of migration-namely, information, attitude, and fields of representation. Using information about the sociodemographic characteristics and the components of social representation mentioned above, our aim was to identify the independent predictors underlying the adolescent's intent to emigrate. Due to the great number of factors involved in the analysis, we conducted a preliminary selection of independent predictors within each of the aforementioned components and created a global index describing their importance. The findings indicate that, among all components of a social representation, attitude and representation of detachment and adaptation are the most important predictors of intent to emigrate. The relatively poor ability of sociodemographic variables to predict a future emigration does not mean that they are not important, but rather that they are more likely to condition attitude, the strongest predictor of a future emigration in the northern region of Portugal. The implication of these findings for handling intervening migration policies is discussed.     

Tracking the Psychosocial Predictors of Older Individuals' Television Uses

The elderly spend considerable amounts of time with mass media, but little is known about the psychology of their viewing habits. This study compared the relative impact of social, structural, and psychosocial variables on the television uses of elderly viewers. The results of a survey of 113 older respondents indicated that psychosocial factors accounted for variance above and beyond that of demographic and situational factors in viewing of television entertainment programs, para-social programs (e.g., soap operas), as well as in watching of television for companionship purposes. Emotional loneliness and locus of control proved particularly significant predictors of television behavior.     

Adolescent Smoking Behavior and the Recognition of Cigarette Advertisements1

In a study designed to assess the relationship between smoking status and correct identification of cigarette brands, junior high school students from two schools viewed cigarette and automobile advertisements with brand and model identification deleted. Results showed that adolescents with higher ad recognition scores were more likely to smoke cigarettes. In addition, a relationship was found between age and correct identification of cigarette advertisements, with older students identifying more ads correctly than younger students. No significant effects emerged for identification of automobile advertisements except for sex, with boys identifying more advertisements than girls. Additional findings indicated that even “experimental” smokers, who smoked as little as once per year, recognized significantly more cigarette advertisements than nonsmokers. These and other results are discussed in terms of their implications for prevention and policy issues. It is argued that society's allowance of printed cigarette advertising overlooks adolescents' heightened vulnerability to the kinds of appeals used in cigarette advertisements. Present policy also overlooks adolescents' relative unresponsiveness to the health risk information required in cigarette advertisements.     

Predictors of Attributional Style Change in Children

A number of studies have supported the hypothesis that negative attributional styles may confer vulnerability to the development of depression. The goal of this study was to explore factors that may contribute to the development of negative attributional styles in children. As hypothesized, elevated levels of depressive symptoms and hopelessness at the initial assessment predicted negative changes in children's attributional styles over the 6-month follow-up period. In addition, elevated levels of verbal victimization occurring between the 2 assessments, as well as that occurring in the 6 months preceding the initial assessment, prospectively predicted negative changes in children's attributional styles over the follow-up. Further, initial depressive symptoms and verbal victimization during the follow-up continued to significantly predict attributional style change even when the overlap among the predictors was statistically controlled. Contrary to the hypotheses, however, neither parent-reported levels of overall negative life events nor parents' attributions for their children's events predicted changes in children's attributional styles.