Depression and Actual Friend Tobacco Use on Perceptions of Use

This study examined whether own smoking behaviors, actual smoking behaviors of friends and depressive symptoms contributed to perceptions of friend smoking prevalence rates. Two hundred thirty-four adolescents (45% male, 41% of whom had ever tried smoking) participated in this study. Students completed a self-report survey on their smoking behaviors, perceptions of friend norms, depressive symptoms, and nominations of their best friends in the class. Smoking behaviors of nominated friends were imported for each student to assess individuals' exposure to actual friend tobacco use. The results indicated that ever smoking (std beta=.599, p<.0001) and depressive symptoms (std beta=.296, p=.029) significantly contributed to perceptions of peer tobacco use norms (r-sq=.22, p<.0001) after controlling for gender. Despite a significant correlation between actual friend smoking and perceptions (r=.17, p<.02), actual friend smoking was not a significant predictor of perceptions when other socio-demographic variables were controlled for in the model. Those with depressive symptoms reported higher perceptions of friends who smoke than non-depressed adolescents (t=-2.22, p=.03) but there were no differences in actual friend smoking behaviors (t=.99, p>.10). This finding suggests that those with higher levels of depressive symptoms may have biased cognitions which put them at-risk for unhealthy behaviors. Social influences based smoking prevention programs, which often target peer smoking norms, would benefit from understanding how individual dispositions affect programming messages and can inform development of tailored effects for the most vulnerable populations.