Smoking initiation in youth The roles of gender, race, socioeconomics, and developmental status

PURPOSE: To describe smoking initiation, and to investigate factors that predict the early initiation of smoking in schoolchildren using a longitudinal approach. METHODS: A prospective study of smoking habits of children from the third and fourth grades through the eighth and ninth grades. The initial study population was 1970; 79.8% were white and 20.2% were African-American. Children were classified as "nonsmokers," "experimental smokers," or …