Factors Associated with Growth in Daily Smoking among Indigenous Adolescents

Authors

Les B. Whitbeck, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Kelley J. Sittner Hartshorn, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Julia McQuillan, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Devan M. Crawford, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

2012

Citation

J Res Adolesc. 2012 December 1; 22(4): 768–781.

Comments

© 2012 The Authors.Published by John Wiley.

Abstract

North American Indigenous adolescents smoke earlier, smoke more, and are more likely to become regular smokers as adults than youth from any other ethnic group yet we know very little about their early smoking trajectories. We use multilevel growth modeling across five waves of data from Indigenous adolescents (aged 10 to 13 years at Wave 1) to investigate factors associated with becoming a daily smoker. Several factors, including number of peers who smoked at Wave 1 and meeting diagnostic criteria for major depressive episode and conduct disorder were associated with early daily smoking. Only age and increases in the number of smoking peers were associated with increased odds of becoming a daily smoker.