Factors Affecting Cigarette Smoking and Intention to Smoke Among Puerto Rican-American High School Students

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Abstract
Using data from a survey of Puerto Rican adolescents in Boston and Hartford, a cross-sectional analysis was conducted of factors affecting recent cigarette smoking status and intentions to smoke in the next 5 years. Among Puerto Rican-American high school students between the ages of 14 and 20 years, nearly 12% of the males and 10% of the females had smoked at least one cigarette during the month prior to in-home interviews. Two factors -the proportion of close friends who smoked and exposure to smokers during recreational activities-were positively associated with the likelihood that respondents had smoked in the past month and intended to smoke in the future. The smoking status offamily members had no major independent effects on a teen's behavior. Degree of acculturation, measured by three language usage items, was associated with higher rates of smoking by male students but not by females. These results suggest that peer pressure is as important an influence on the cigarette smoking behavior of Puerto Ricans as it is for non-Latino students.