Discuss current trends and the reasons for cigarette smoking among adolescents and emerging adults.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

In the United States, smoking is likely to begin in grades seven through nine, although sizable portions of youth are still establishing regular smoking habits during high school and college. Cigarettes have been the substance most frequently used by high-school seniors on a daily basis. However, cigarette smoking is significantly decreasing among adolescents. It has declined significantly since 1997. Since the mid-1990s, an increasing percentage of adolescents have reported that they perceive cigarette smoking as dangerous, that they disapprove of it, that they are less accepting of being around smokers, and that they prefer to date nonsmokers. While adolescent cigarette use has decreased in recent years, a substantial number of U.S. adolescents are now vaping nicotine. Recently, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of e-cigarettes among individuals in emerging and early adulthood. The peer group especially plays an important role in smoking. A research review concluded that in addition to acquiring a best friend who smokes, initiation of smoking in adolescence was linked to getting into trouble at school, having poorer grades, and delinquency. Escalation of smoking in adolescence was predicted by depressive symptoms.