Intimate Partner Violence, Sexual Abuse, and Cigarette Smoking Risk in Adolescents

Abstract

This study sought to examine the impact of being a victim of physical intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual abuse (SA) on tobacco smoking behaviors in high school students. Using a national sample of 16,410 adolescents (52 % male), results indicated that exposure to either IPV or SA served as a risk factor for several risky smoking behaviors, such as smoking cigarettes daily, initiating smoking prior to age 13, and smoking more than 10 cigarettes per day. Additionally, adolescents who endorsed both IPV and SA were at an even greater risk of endorsing these risky smoking behaviors. Findings suggest that future intervention and prevention efforts that target IPV and SA in adolescents may help decrease the incidence of smoking behaviors in adolescents.