Social Environmental and Individual Factors Associated with Smoking Among a Panel of Adolescent Girls

This study assessed changes in the influence of social environmental and individual factorsand the interaction of these factors with timeon smoking prevalence for girls. Longitudinal panel surveys of adolescent girls (N = 921 in both 2000 and 2004) from schools in Louisiana were completed in the ninth grade (2000) and then again in the twelfth grade (2004). A fixed effects hierarchical multiple regression model assessed the relation of changes in social environmental and individual factors to smoking prevalence. Increases in smoking prevalence over time among adolescent girls were associated with their perceptions of themselves as overweight and perceiving low risk associated with smoking. Increases in smoking prevalence over time were also associated with having friends who smoked, perceptions of friends' approval of smoking, having family members who smoked, and having monetary discretionary spending. Having friends who smoked was more strongly associated with smoking in the twelfth grade than in the ninth grade. While more black adolescent girls smoked than did white girls in the ninth grade, by the twelfth grade, more white adolescents girls smoked than did black girls. Interventions that target adolescent girls should consider the temporal variability of individual and social environmental factors.