Determining acquisition and cessation antecedents to adolescent cigarette smoking for development of intervention strategies
Abstract
Our national focus and emphasis on the promotion of healthy behavior choices regarding tobacco and other drugs continues to target adolescents. Multiple studies have shown that adolescence is the optimum period for the prevention of substance use initiation as life-long patterns of health behaviors are established during this critical developmental stage. Tobacco use is associated with an increase in morbid and mortal health conditions of which prevalence increases throughout the lifespan. Attention to the antecedents of preventable health conditions aims to modify the risks and identify health promotion factors. Modifying antecedent factors for tobacco initiation in youth and identifying protective factors for successful smoking cessation has major public health implications across the lifespan. Of foremost interest are those risk factors and resultant behaviors that predict a youth's probability of initiating cigarette use and their cessation of cigarette use. Specifically, this dissertation supports previous results identifying intervention variables on the initiation/cessation continuum model especially with the established predictors of smoking (decisional balance and susceptibility) and with more recently identified predictors of smoking (nicotine dependence and withdrawal symptoms) in current and former smokers in a sample of high school students in Austin and Houston, Texas. These results offer insight for the development of appropriate intervention program strategies for our youth.
Subject Area
Public health|Behaviorial sciences
Recommended Citation
Hester, Lynne Elizabeth Vendsel, "Determining acquisition and cessation antecedents to adolescent cigarette smoking for development of intervention strategies" (2004). Texas Medical Center Dissertations (via ProQuest). AAI3143612.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/dissertations/AAI3143612