Identification of Which High Risk Youth Smoke Cigarettes Regularly

This study investigated which variables distinguish high school-aged adolescents who identify themselves as members of a high-risk group and, among them, those who report regular (weekly) vs. light levels of cigarette smoking. Youth who identified with a highrisk group were most likely to report problem-prone characterI dentifying predictors of adolescent cigarette smoking has remained an important research task for several years because those youth who smoke also tend to be engaged In other risky behavior, 1 approxtmately 70% of youth who smoke regularly are likely to become smokers as adults 2 and a knowledge of predictors of adolesce~t 42 istics, such as a preference to take risks and smoke cigarettes. Yet, only half of them reported regular levels of smoking. Two variables delineated light smoldng among these youth: not having a close friend who smoked and placing an importance on health as a value. Development of new tobacco-use prevention strategies to impart health values is suggested. smoking provides Information useful forth~ development of prevention pro~~ Adolescent peer group 1nfluences have bee found to be among the strongest predictors of tobacco use, In part because the ~r groupmaypromotertsktaklngvaluesaro :! its members that encourage experfmen tion with cigarettes. 3 the Adolescents often provide names tod Informal peer groups with which they 1 ~= tify. Therefore, two recent studies In":th gated whether or not identification t:Jve of discrete adolescent groups was Pre;:~. and tobacco use. Mosbach and Levan tlonSussman et al. ~used a self-report ques and naire approach, developed from Brown up 1iujillo (unpublished study). toassess~ed identification. This technique req~ch subjects to identify the one group with then theyfeltmosta part of. Thenameswe~·hot­ grouped into five main categories .• and shots; ·regulars; ·jocks; ·skaters. th. ·dlrts· (to be referred to as •hfgb-riskyou ts • in the rest of this manuscript). ·Hot-~ by or popular youngsters, were desc~ool acthese researchers as leaders In sc .. _ tivitles, such as academic activities. RegU r I ' . mr s & i·MiNt 'f!'ii"'?'DWs Iars" were described as normal or typical of their grade. The ·jocks" were described as having a strong Interest 1n team and Individual sports activities. ·skaters" were described as placing Importance on an outdoor skateboarding activity. Ftnally, the ·high-risk youth" were described as exhlblUng problem-prone attitudes and behaviors that Included low self-esteem, a preference to take risks, and drug use. Both studies found that youth who were most likely to smoke cigarettes ldentlfted themselves as belonging to a htgh-rtsk group. Across both studies, approxtmately 50% of those 7th-to-10th graders who tdentlfted themselves as belonging to a high-risk group were weekly smokers, whereas among the several other self-identified adolescent groups less than 25% were weekly smokers. Still, not all youth who Jdentl:fted themselves as a member of a htgh-rtsk adolescent group were weekly cigarette smokers; 50% smoked cigarettes at a much lower frequency. Because risk was assigned by group membership, and not by use of tobacco, this result was not contradictozy. On the other hand, this result ts surprising because these youth were likely to have been experiencing relatively intense group pressure to smoke. Predictors that dtiTerentiate htgh-riskyouth who are regular smokers from the high-risk youth who are light smokers mtghtsuggeststrategtes that these youth employ to protect themselves from group pressure. Such Information is of potential importance to preventive efforts among high-risk youth. There are at least two sets of predictors that differentiate light from regular smokersamongtheseyouth. First, thellghtsmokers simply could rate themselves at lower levels along those same variables that dlsCrtminate the high-risk youth from other groups. They may report having fewer close friends who smoke ctgarettes,less risktaking preference, and so on.~ In other words, they may be less representative of the youth who typically identify themselves as members of a high-rtsk group. Alternatively, youth who are not regular smokers yet Identify themselves as belongIng to a high-risk group may resist social pressures to smoke cigarettes due to certain variables that do not typically d.Uferentlate high-nsk youth from others. Some Previous research has suggested that youth ::o report problem-prone attitudes and havior are less likely to smoke or use drugs lf they tend to engage 1n physically Health Values VoL 17, No.1, JaJVFebruary 1993 '~