Adolescents' responses to peer smoking offers: the role of sensation seeking and self-esteem

Abstract

This article deals with an important topic (youth smoking) and makes a contribution to the literature by validating existing research and extending our understanding of smoking resistance strategies. This study classified adolescent reports of their responses to cigarette smoking offers utilizing four drug refusal strategies of refuse, explain, avoid, and leave (REAL) and explored how personality factors explain adolescents' use of cigarette refusal strategies. Participants were predominantly Hispanic junior high students (6th-8th grades) from schools in the Northeast United States who participated in a survey design (N = 260). The strategy of explain was reported most frequently for initial and follow-up smoking offers. Adolescents with a greater number of friends who smoked were more likely to use the avoid strategy for initial smoking offers. Sensation seeking was positively related to the use of leave and avoid strategies for initial smoking offers and leave strategy for follow-up smoking offers. No association was found between self-esteem and use of smoking refusal strategies. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.