Developmental risk and protective factors for cigarette smoking among African-American and white adolescent males

The purpose of this study was to examine risk and protective factors for the initiation and maintenance of cigarette smoking during varying developmental periods from childhood through late adolescence for African-American and white adolescents. We used data from a sample of 503 males who were first recruited in the first grade and followed annually for 14 years. Trajectory analyses identified three trajectory groups for African Americans and whites: nonsmokers, light smokers, and regular smokers. The following domains of risk and protective factors were included in the analyses: individual [hyperactivity/impulsivity/attention problem (HIA), depression, attitudes toward substance use, school performance, delinquency frequency, and religiosity], family (parental smoking and relationship with parents), peer (peer delinquency), and environmental [socioeconomic status (SES) and neighborhood quality]. First analyses were conducted separately by race to determine which factors represented risk and which represented protection. Then hierarchical logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine how these factors differentiated among the three trajectory groups and whether race interacted with these factors. Many of the variables were both risk and protective factors across different developmental periods. School performance and religiosity were only significantly related to smoking for African Americans and SES was only related for whites. For both races HIA, depression, delinquency, and peer delinquency were significantly related to smoking. In the multivariate analyses, race, SES, and delinquency were related to smoking at younger ages and delinquent peers was related to smoking at all ages. Only four interactions with race were significant for smoking. Good school performance was protective for African Americans at ages 7-9, but not whites. Having many delinquent peers was a stronger risk factor for African Americans at ages 13-16, but having many at ages 17-19 was a risk factor only for whites. Being low in delinquency was a stronger protective factor for whites at ages 13-16. Depression was related to regular smoking only for African Americans and attitudes toward substance use, parental smoking, and neighborhood quality were related only for whites. For both races HIA, school performance, delinquency, and peer delinquency were related to regular smoking. In the multivariate analyses, being African American protected against regular smoking at all ages. Only one interaction was significant; low depression was a protective factor for African American but not white regular smoking. Overall, the fact that there were few significant interactions of risk and protective factors with race suggests that the same factors can be targeted for both whites and African Americans in cigarette prevention programs.