A prospective study of cigarette smoking initiation during college: Chinese and Korean American students

The present study was a prospective investigation of baseline influences on initial smoking and transition to established smoking among college students who had not smoked prior to college.

Included were 267 participants in a longitudinal study of tobacco use. Students of Chinese (52%) or Korean (48%) descent were enrolled during their freshman year in college. Data for the present study were collected during four annual in-person interviews.

(1) Initial use of a cigarette reflected having first smoked a cigarette (more than a puff) during college. (2) Established smoking was defined as having smoked at least 100 cigarettes.

Over the course of the study, 25% of baseline never-smokers tried their first cigarette, and 9% became established smokers. Overall, men were significantly more likely to experiment and progress to established smoking. Baseline alcohol and drug use, behavioral undercontrol, and parental smoking predicted smoking experimentation but not established smoking. Students of Korean ethnicity were more likely to become established smokers. However, acculturation was not a significant predictor of experimentation or established smoking after accounting for the effects of other predictors.

These findings suggest a need for efforts to prevent smoking uptake among Asian American college students.