Cigarette Smoking Status: A Comparison of African-American and Caucasian Adolescents in the United States

Limited information on cigarette smoking in racial minority groups hinders development of effective and cultural competent treatment and prevention strategies. We know surprisingly little about how the differential predictors of smoking status (i.e., nonsmoking, experimenting smoking, and regular smoking) among African-American and Caucasian adolescents. This study examines similarities and differences in the prevalence and predictors of adolescent smoking status between these two racial groups in a nationally representative sample. Using data from the 2004 National Youth Tobacco Survey, 5,100 African-American adolescents (female, 52.6%; male, 47.4%) and 12,555 Caucasian adolescents (female, 49.9%; male, 50.1%) in grades 6 through 12 were selected. Findings revealed that, consistent with results from the 2005 NSDUH(2006), significantly more African-American than Caucasian adolescents experimented with cigarettes(27.9% vs.19.3%,p=.000); but Caucasian adolescents had significantly higher rates of regular smoking than their counterparts(9.5%vs.2.5%,p=.000). Multivariate analyses revealed that, age, weekly income, smoking intention, family members' cigarette use, best friends' smoking, absent from school, exposure to smoking advertising, and usage of tobacco company products positively predicted adolescent experimental smoking in both youths; age, weekly income, smoking intention, family members' smoking, and best friends' smoking positively predicted regular smoking in both groups. Perception of the harmful effects of smoking predicted only among African-American regular smoking while absent from school predicted only among Caucasian regular smoking. Findings emphasize that similarities and differences in predictors of smoking status between the two racial groups should be incorporated into smoking cessation and prevention strategies.