Researchers Bruce G. Simons-Morton , Ed.D., M.P.H., and Denise L. Haynie,
Ph.D., M.P.H., of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
surveyed students in Charles County, Md., in the fall and spring of their
sixth-grade year. The findings appear in the American Journal of
Health Behavior.
They classified the students into five stages — those
who had never smoked; those who intended to smoke at some future time
(like high school);
those who had tried a cigarette, but not recently; those who had experimented
with cigarettes by smoking once or twice in the past 30 days; and those
who were current smokers.
Within the school year, never-smokers declined from 84 percent of the
all students to 65 percent, Simons-Morton and Haynie say. Intenders increased
from 9 percent to 16 percent, those who tried smoking rose from 3 percent
to 8 percent, experimenters from 2 percent to 6 percent and current smokers
from 2 percent to 6 percent.
Children who in the fall had rated themselves as intenders were three
times more likely than never-smokers to move up the ladder and try, experiment
with or actually smoke a cigarette.
Girls were in more danger than boys of progressing toward smoking. More
girls (86 percent) than boys (81 percent) were never-smokers in the fall,
but by spring fewer girls (63 percent) remained never-smokers than boys
(67 percent) and were 50 percent more likely to advance in smoking stage.
White students were twice as likely as their black peers to advance in
stage. Students who thought more people smoked or who spent time with problem-causing
children also were more likely to move up in stage than others.
Overall, Simons-Morton and Haynie say, students who in the fall of sixth
grade reported any smoking (trying, experimenting or currently smoking)
were six to 10 times more likely to report smoking six months later in
the spring of the same school year.
“Given this pattern,” they say, “it
appears useful to treat intender, trier, experimenter and current-user
as stages in the
adoption of habitual smoking.”
On the other hand, students who demonstrated greater social competence,
higher parental expectations regarding smoking and closer parental monitoring
were less likely to move to a higher stage.
Parents’ actions may affect their children’s
decisions about smoking by competing with peer and media influences.
“Clear parental expectations and effective monitoring may be particularly
important during early adolescence, when many youth first experience substantial
independence from adult supervision,” Simons-Morton says.
Socially competent youth may be better able to make friends, deal with
difficult social situations, manage negative peer influences and solve
problems that might otherwise increase the likelihood of experimentation
with smoking, he adds.
The study was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development of the National Institutes of Health.
