Adolescents becoming smokers: the roles of stress and coping methods

To examine the relationship of stress and coping methods to smoking status (never-smoker, experimenter, and current smoker) among an inner-city, clinic-based, adolescent population, as well as to examine the prevalence of smoking and related behaviors in this population using a cross-sectional survey.

A self-administered questionnaire that included the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), negative life events (LES), and a coping measures scale was used with 954 clinic patients aged 12-21 years. Demographic characteristics were compared using analysis of variance and Chi-square test. The Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance was used to compare the values of each scale among smoking-status groups. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the relationship of smoking status to PSS, LES, and coping methods.

The overall prevalence of smoking in this population was 26%. The age of onset was 13.3 years for current smokers vs. 15.5 for experimenters (p<.01). Perceived stress and negative life events, adjusting for demographic variables, were highest among current smokers, less so in experimenters, and lowest in the never-smokers (p <.001). Stepwise logistic regression analysis showed that negative life events, perceived stress, greater use of the negative coping methods of anger and helplessness, and less use of the positive coping methods of parental support and cognitive coping were significantly and independently related to smoking status.

One in four inner-city youth report smoking. Higher levels of stress and greater use of negative coping methods were found in current smokers than in experimenters and never-smokers.