Origins of Cigarette Smoking in Academic Achievement, Stress and Social Expectations: Does Gender Make a Difference?

Abstract

This research is based on a panel study of urban black adolescents (N = 536) with six to eight years intervening between measuring the predictors and measuring subsequent smoking initiation. Prior research with white and largely school-drawn samples has demonstrated that poor school achievement has a significant influence on smoking initiation. The same relationship held in this black youth sample, with a stronger effect noted for females than for males. Two major competing explanations of this relationship then were tested: (1) psychogenic, which postulated smoking as a means of coping with school related stress and; (2) differential socialization, which postulated smoking as an outcome of adherence to divergent social norms. Separate prediction models were tested for males and females. Psychogenic variables (worry about school performance) significantly increased females' smoking risk, but not males'. Social expectancy (perceptions of one's chances in the opportunity structure), an indicator of differential socialization, added significantly to males' risk of smoking initiation, but not females'. Neither significantly reduced the poor academic achievement-smoking link.