Adolescent Depression and Future Smoking Behavior: A Prospective Study

Abstract

The aim of the study was to examine the associations between depressive symptoms and smoking, concurrently and prospectively, in adolescents in America, the evaluation of depressive symptoms according to different group's smoking status, and the assessed associations between concurrent depressive level and success in smoking cessation. The participants were 2,735 boys and 2,890 girls from the Add Health data set. The prospective analysis indicated that participants with higher depressive symptoms in Wave I were more likely to start smoking and become regular smokers in Wave II. Moreover, regression analysis found that depressive symptoms in both Waves I and II predicted current smoking status. Findings are discussed within the context of the empirical and theoretical review and implications for social work practice are considered.Adolescence signifies a dynamic period of growth that can be perceived as enjoyable and enriching, tumultuous and challenging, or a combination of both for many adolescents. During this phase of development, adolescents' emotions and behaviors are more susceptible to influence by internal (physical) and external (social and environmental) factors than adults. Therefore, it may be important to examine factors that affect their well-being. Two such factors are smoking and depression.Over the past three decades, considerable numbers of studies have been done on the area of smoking and depression, and some of these studies have examined the

Longitudinal Associations Between Smoking and Depressive Symptoms Among Adolescent Girls

“…Using a sample of adolescent girls from age 11 to 20, the analyses sought to clarify the inconsistencies in the extant literature, with some studies supporting smoking as a precursor to depression (Hanna & Grant, 1999; Munafò et al, 2008; Wu & Anthony, 1999), others showing depression preceding initiation of smoking (Hooshmand et al, 2012; Kim et al, 2009; Maslowsky & Schulenberg, in press; McKenzie et al, 2010), as well as several finding reciprocal associations (Audrain-McGovern et al, 2009; Moon et al, 2010). Using sophisticated analyses that accounted for simultaneous bidirectional effects across adolescence, the current study provides support for smoking behavior leading to increases in depressive symptoms, but not the reverse (i.e.…”

“…Of those that examined temporal patterns, two studies of adolescents supported depression preceding smoking behavior (Audrain-McGovern et al, 2009; Hooshmand et al, 2012), while a third showed reciprocal effects (Moon et al, 2010). The present study provides the first evidence demonstrating that smoking is a temporal precursor to depressive symptoms using latent dual change score models.…”

“…Specifically, it is still not clear whether depressive symptoms predict increased smoking, increased smoking predicts increased depressive symptoms, or both associations are occurring simultaneously in a reciprocal manner. Moon and colleagues (2010) have conducted one of the few studies to test bidirectional associations between smoking and depression. Using the Add Health data (middle and high school students, Wave 1 mean age of 16), they reported that higher levels of depression in Wave 1 was associated with smoking status (never, experimenter, consistent) in Wave 2 (approximately 1 year later) and that smoking status in Wave 1 was associated with depression in Wave 2 (Moon, Mo, & Basham, 2010).…”

Adolescent Cigarette Use in the Americas: The Link with Depression

“…Studies using national representative samples of adolescents in the United States have found that those who report greater depression symptoms are at greater risk for smoking initiation (Moon, Mo, & Basham, 2010). Similarly, data from adolescents in California suggest that those who report greater depression during 6 th grade are at greater risk for smoking initiation two years later (Weiss, Mouttapa, Cen, Johnson, & Unger, 2011).…”

Cigarette smoking, depressive symptoms, and social cognitions

“…Studies focused on the relationship in adolescents reveal similar results. For example, Moon, Mo, and Basham (2010) studied the association between depressive symptoms and smoking in a large sample of adolescents in the U.S. The results showed that adolescents who had higher levels of depressive symptoms at the beginning of the study were more likely to start smoking and become regular smokers two years later.…”