Cigarette Smoking Status among Latino middle- and high- school students: Findings from the 2009 National Youth Tobacco Survey

Although it is well documented that adolescent smoking is a public health concern, fewer studies have examined multiple predictors of different stages of cigarette smoking among Latino adolescents. This study is to examine the multiple predictors of smoking status (i.e., experimenting smoking, occasional smoking, and regular smoking) in a national sample of Latino youth. Using data from the 2009 National Youth Tobacco Survey, 5,905 Latino adolescents (Weighted N=4,819,392) in grades 6 through 12 were selected. Findings revealed one in five (20%) of the study sample youth were experimental smokers; nearly one in ten (9%) were occasional smokers; and 5% were regular smokers. Overall, high school students reported higher rates of experimental (14% vs. 6%), occasional (6% vs. 2%), and regular (3% vs. 1%) smoking. Multinomial logistic regression analyses showed that age, weekly income, family members' smoking, refusal to smoke, number of days absent from school, and exposure to tobacco marketing were predictors of experimenters (vs. nonsmokers); awareness of harmful effects of secondhand smoking, refusal to smoke, exposure to tobacco advertising, and receptivity to tobacco marketing were predictors of occasional smokers (vs. experimenters); and age, male, refusal to smoke, number of days absent from school, and receptivity to tobacco marketing were predictors of regular smokers (vs. occasional smokers). Findings emphasize that practices and policies aimed at targeting different stages of smoking behavior may reduce the devastating consequences of smoking in this population.