Although smoking initiation is rare in young adulthood, the progression to a higher level of smoking still occurs at this developmental stage. Thus, this study was aimed at exploring predictors of the transition from experimental to daily smoking in late teens and young adults using the 2nd and 3rd waves from the National Longitudinal Study of…

This study examined how girls' initial use of alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana related to changes in depressive, generalized anxiety, and social anxiety symptoms, and whether these changes varied based on which internalizing symptom trajectories the girls were on. Data came from the Pittsburgh Girls Study, a community-based study of girls…

Background: Cigarette smoking is a health-risk behavior of global proportions. Self-efficacy plays an important role in both smoking acquisition and smoking resistance. Reliability and validity of an instrument is fundamental to research results, particularly in its simplified form on a different population. The purpose of this study was to…

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate a depression-focused treatment for smoking cessation in pregnant women versus a time and contact health education control. We hypothesized that the depression-focused treatment would lead to improved abstinence and reduced depressive symptoms among women with high levels of depressive…

Objective: The current introductory article provides the rationale for the special section on understudied smokers and innovative treatments. This article proposes a definition of "special populations" of smokers, outlines a priori criteria by which to judge whether an intervention should be adapted for these smokers, and delineates a process by…

The purpose of this study was to examine the association of cigarette smoking and 2 indicators of psychosocial distress (hopelessness and loneliness) among adolescents from 2 distinctly different regions of the world: Central-Eastern Europe (Hungary, Ukraine, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Romania, Poland) and Southeast Asia (Thailand, Taiwan, and the…

This study examined adolescent attitudes towards tobacco control laws. An exploratory factor analysis, using surveys from over 9,000 students, identified the following three factors: (1) youth attitudes towards the efficacy of tobacco control laws, (2) youth attitudes towards tobacco possession laws and (3) youth attitudes towards tobacco sales…

Aim: This study examined the prevalence of medicine use for headache, stomachache, difficulties in getting to sleep, nervousness, depression and lack of energy among 15- to 16-year-old students; the relationship between medicine use and students' health status; and the relationship between medicine and nicotine, illegal drug, and alcohol use.…

Participation in high-risk behaviors, such as substance use or dangerous driving practices, is widely reported by young adults and college students. Psychosocial theories explain participation in high-risk behaviors by the effects of risk perception on the outcome of behavior. Physiological researchers assert that biological factors (such as the…

The home is a significant place for exposure to secondhand smoke for children and non-smoking adults. This study explored factors that would convince families to adopt household smoking bans and actions to create and maintain smoke-free homes. Interviews were conducted with adults in 102 households in rural Georgia. Participating families had a…

This study examines how the American Legacy Foundation's "truth[R]" campaign and Philip Morris's "Think. Don't Smoke" (TDS) campaign have influenced youth's tobacco-related attitudes, beliefs and intentions during the first 3 years of the truth campaign. We use data from eight nationally representative cross-sectional telephone surveys of 35,074…

Smoking is a major health problem, however the issue is even more pronounced among those incarcerated in prisons, where smoking rates are often three times that of the general population. While effective treatments have been demonstrated in the tobacco literature, research examining treatment within prisons is limited in scope. This article…

Objective: Between September 2002 and February 2003, the authors assessed the effectiveness of a new, age-tailored, self-help smoking-cessation program for college students. Participants: College student smokers (N = 216) from 6 Ontario universities participated. Methods: The researchers used a randomized controlled trial with a 3-month telephone…

Objective: To validate the self-reported smoking status of Korean university students. Methods: Subjects included 322 Korean university in Korea, who participated in an annual health screening. Data on smoking were collected through a self-reported questionnaire and urine test. The data were analyzed by the McNemar test. Results: In the…

The analysis of the data on 22,545 smoking mothers and their 18-month-old children finds that maternal smoking during pregnancy increases the risk for externalizing behavior problem at the age of 18-months. The child's gender is found to have no moderating effects on the findings.