OBJECTIVE Smoking usually develops in adolescence and is patterned by socioeconomic position (SEP). We examined whether early adolescent smoking development and associations with SEP have changed over time in a population with well-developed tobacco control policies. We additionally investigated the relative importance of socioeconomic inequalities at different stages of smoking development. ...

BACKGROUND Existing evidence has shown that most smoking uptake and escalation occurs while smokers are teenagers or young adults. Effective policies that reduce smoking uptake and escalation will play an important role in curbing cigarette smoking. This study aims to investigate the effect of smoke-free air (SFA) laws in bars on smoking initiation/relapse while controlling for other confounder...

BACKGROUND Exposure to smoking in movies has been linked with adolescent smoking initiation in cross-sectional studies. We undertook a prospective study to ascertain whether exposure to smoking in movies predicts smoking initiation. METHOD We assessed exposure to smoking shown in movies in 3547 adolescents, aged 10-14 years, who reported in a baseline survey that they had never tried smoking....

BACKGROUND Widening of socioeconomic status (SES) inequalities in smoking prevalence has occurred in several Western countries from the mid 1970's onwards. However, little is known about a widening of SES inequalities in smoking consumption, initiation and cessation. METHODS Repeated cross-sectional population surveys from 2001 to 2008 (n ≈ 18,000 per year) were used to examine changes in smo...

BACKGROUND Smoking is usually initiated early in life and most adult regular smokers have started smoking before 18 years of age. A younger age at smoking initiation is associated with risk taking behaviours and worse health outcomes regarding psychological and somatic conditions, suggested to be caused by exposure during critical developmental periods. The present study aims to investigate sel...

Smoking-related behaviors and attitudes of significant others (especially friends and parents) are among the most consistent predictors of adolescent smoking. However, theorists remain divided on whether the behaviors of significant others influence adolescent smoking directly or indirectly, and the relative influence of parental and peer smoking on adolescents' own smoking is still a matter of...