Objectives: We aimed to compare the smoking behaviors in adolescents from monocultural and multicultural families and to evaluate the associations between their smoking behavior and number of suicide attempts. Methods: The data used in this study was collected from The Tenth Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey. The differences in the sociodemographic characteristics between the adolescents in the multicultural and monocultural families were analyzed through the χ 2-test, and a logistic regression was conducted to evaluate the relationships between the smoking behavior and number of suicide attempts of the adolescents in multicultural families. The process involved an analysis using a complex sample design. Results: There was significant difference in the weighted rates of the current smoking behavior (13.3% vs. 8.4%, p＜0.001), experience of violence (6.8% vs. 2.3%, p＜0.001), and number of suicide attempts (5.4% vs. 2.7%, p＜0.001) between the adolescents from the multicultural and monocultural families. In both groups, the current smoking behavior was associated with the number of suicide attempts (multicultural families OR=6.5, p=0.005; monocultural families OR=1.5, p＜0.001). Conclusion: Our results showed that the percentage of current smokers in the adolescents from multicultural families was higher than that in the monocultural families and that current smoking behavior is related to the number of suicide attempts in both groups, after adjustment for age, sex, socioeconomic status, academic achievement, current smoking behavior, depressive mood and experience of violence.

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ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to investigate whether depressive symptoms affect the relationship between adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the quality of life (QOL) in Korean soldiers.MethodsWe evaluated past and present symptoms of adult ADHD (the Korean Adult Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Scale and the Wender Utah Rating Scale), depression (the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale) and QOL (the Korean version of the SmithKline Beecham 'Quality of Life' scale) in 131 soldiers during mental health screenings performed by a local mental health center. A structured equation model using AMOS 19.0 was used to evaluate the mediating effect of depression.ResultsIn our first model (without depressive symptoms), adult ADHD significantly affected QOL (standardized regression weight=-0.51, p<0.01). After depressive symptoms were added to this model, the direct effect of adult ADHD on QOL was not significant (standardized regression weight=0.10, p=0.43). Regarding the indirect effect, adult ADHD significantly affected depression (standardized regression weight=0.78, p<0.01), and depression also affected QOL (standardized regression weight=-0.79, p<0.01).ConclusionThrough structural equation modeling, the complete mediation model for the influence of depressive symptoms on ADHD and QOL was confirmed. These findings indicated that it might be important to consider comorbidities, such as depression, when adult ADHD is being evaluated.