The Development of Smoking Behavior: Conceptualization and Supportive Cross‐Sectional Survey Data1

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
To describe the steps and process of becoming a smoker, we interviewed 386 urban public school children in grades two through ten and found the following: 47% of the sample tried a cigarette, and they tended to be in higher grades, score high on risk‐taking, and have best friends who smoke; 32% of triers progressed to a second cigarette, with quick progressors characterized by life stress variables and slow progressors characterized by having peers who smoke; 77% of second‐cigarette triers progressed to a third cigarette, and tended to be characterized by a brief, if any, delay between the first two cigarettes, having a best friend who smokes, and helplessness. Different sub‐samples appear to be learning to smoke to cope with social pressures or to control their emotional state. Descriptions of the first cigarette experience suggest its potential for deterring continued smoking. Suggestions are made for smoking prevention programs to consider the entire process of becoming a smoker and to add intervention components that take into account the different variables which move separate sub‐samples of individuals from stage to stage.