Characteristics of persistent smoking among pregnant teenagers followed to young adulthood.

Abstract

Pregnant teenagers (N=344) were interviewed during first and third trimesters (average age=16.2 years) and interviewed again as young adults (average age=23.0 years). Nearly 47% were smokers during the first trimester, 58% smoked during the third trimester, and 61% were smokers in their early adult years. Some 40% (n=137) continued smoking into young adulthood (persistent smokers); 7% quit. Average number of cigarettes per day was 10.0 among persistent smokers and 6.8 among quitters (p<.05). Nearly 20% started smoking by young adulthood (late-onset smokers). Persistent smokers and quitters were most similar to one another, and they differed from the late-onset smokers and persistent nonsmokers on demographic, psychological, and behavioral measures. These variables from the teenage years included White race, lower maternal education, lower school grades, more aggression and delinquency problems, and earlier and more peer use of substances. Characteristics from the adult years included White race; lower education; and more anxiety, hostility, and alcohol use. Multivariate analyses using discriminant function analyses showed that three characteristics from the teenage years discriminated across the three smoking groups (persistent, late-onset, quitters): White race, friends' smoking, and lower maternal education. The same analyses using the adult characteristics showed that White race and lower personal educational level discriminated the persistent smokers and quitters from the late-onset smokers. Lower gravidity discriminated the persistent smokers from the quitters. Characteristics of women who are at highest risk of persistent smoking can be identified in both the teenage years and the early adult years, and appropriate interventions can be targeted to those women at highest risk of persistent smoking.