Pathways to smoking cessation among African American and Puerto Rican young adults.

Objectives: We examined the pathways to smoking cessation between late adolescence and young adulthood.

Methods: We obtained data from a sample of urban African American and Puerto Rican young adults (N=242), mean age 19 years, who reported tobacco use and determined cessation rates between late adolescence and young adulthood. We used structural equation modeling to examine the pathways of positive family relations, family smoking, maladaptive personality attributes, and substance use to smoking cessation.

Results: A mediational pathway linked the absence of positive family relations with maladaptive personality attributes, both of which were related to substance use and ultimately smoking cessation. Substance use mediated the path between family smoking and smoking cessation.

Conclusions: The results suggest that a positive relationship with one's parents, less smoking in the family, conventional personality attributes, and little or no other substance use facilitate smoking cessation among young adults.