The role of schoolmates' smoking and non-smoking in adolescents' smoking transitions: a longitudinal study.

Aims: The first longitudinal investigation of the extent to which same-age and older schoolmates' smoking and non-smoking are associated with adolescents' smoking transitions during three grade intervals.

Design: Same-age and older schoolmates' smoking and non-smoking were assessed when adolescents were at grades 5 (age 10), 7 (age 12) and 9 (age 14). Adolescents' smoking transitions were assessed at three grade intervals: 5th-7th (age 10-12), 7th-9th (age 12-14) and 9th-12th (age 14-17).

Parents' and older siblings' smoking during childhood: changing influences on smoking acquisition and escalation over the course of adolescence.

This study investigated prospectively the change in the influence of parents' and older siblings' smoking at the start of the childhood and adolescent smoking acquisition period (i.e., 3rd grade, or age 8) on the initiation and escalation of smoking over the course of adolescence.

Changes in the influence of parents' and close friends' smoking on adolescent smoking transitions.

This paper examined changes in the influence of parents' and close friends' smoking on smoking transitions occurring over the course of adolescence, using a large (N=6,006) longitudinal study. The three grade periods were 5th to 7th (ages 10-12), 7th to 9th (ages 12-14), and 9th to 12th grade (ages 14-17). Smoking transitions examined were: (1) never to trying, (2) trying to monthly, and (3) monthly to daily.

Close friends', parents', and older siblings' smoking: reevaluating their influence on children's smoking.

A number of longitudinal studies have explored the role of friends', parents', and older siblings' smoking in children's smoking acquisition. A reasonable implication of this previous research is that intervention efforts could be beneficially directed toward countering the potential influence of friends' and possibly older siblings' smoking but not parents' smoking. However, methodological limitations of this previous research motivated our reevaluation of the role of friends', parents', and older siblings' smoking in children's smoking.