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. 2018 Jul 1:188:281-287.
doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2018.03.055. Epub 2018 May 22.

Cigarette use trajectories in young adults: Analyses of predictors across system levels

Carla J Berg  1 , Regine Haardörfer  2 , Milkie Vu  2 , Betelihem Getachew  2 , Steven A Lloyd  3 , Angela Lanier  4 , Donyale Childs  5 , Yasmeni Sandridge  2 , Jennifer Bierhoff  2 , Jingjing Li  2 , Elliyah Dossantos  2 , Michael Windle  2
Affiliations

Cigarette use trajectories in young adults: Analyses of predictors across system levels

Carla J Berg et al. Drug Alcohol Depend. .

Abstract

Background: Cigarette smoking escalates most in early to middle young adulthood. However, little research has examined a range of multilevel factors in relation to smoking trajectories during this time.

Methods: We examined: 1) trajectories of cigarette smoking among 2967 US college students (aged 18-25) in a two-year, six-wave longitudinal study (using growth mixture modeling); and 2) intrapersonal- (i.e., other substance use, depressive symptoms, ADHD symptoms,); interpersonal- (i.e., adverse childhood events, social support, parental tobacco and marijuana use), and community-level (i.e., type of college, rural vs. urban setting) predictors of differing trajectories (using multinomial logistic regression).

Results: We identified three trajectory classes: 1) Dabblers, who used cigarettes at one point in their life or not at all (85.6%); 2) College Onset Smokers, who began smoking regularly during the college years (6.2%); and 3) Later Onset Smokers, who began smoking during the mid- to late-20 s (8.2%). Multinomial regression (with Dabblers as the reference group) showed that predictors of being College Onset Smokers included being male (p = .031); Asian (p = .001) but not Black (p = .008; Ref: White); early onset smokers (i.e., initiation before age 15; p = .006); past 30-day users of little cigars/cigarillos (p = .024), alcohol (p < .001), and marijuana (p = .008); children of tobacco users (p = .050); and public (p = .031) or a technical college students (p < .001; Ref: private college); predictors of being Later Onset Smokers were being male (p = .019) and technical college students (p = .005).

Conclusions: Despite some young adults' smoking initiating/escalating in middle young adulthood, few risk factors were documented. This understudied period warrants greater examination to inform intervention.

Keywords: Marijuana use; Risk factors; Substance use; Tobacco use; Young adults.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
GMM Cigarette Trajectories.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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