Youth Tobacco Use: Risks, Patterns, and Control

Abstract

Abstract The most reliable data on youth tobacco use come from the Monitoring the Future annual survey of high school youth conducted by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research (ISR) (Johnston, O’Malley, Bachman 1989; in press).1 These data indicate that 19% of 1992 high school seniors in the United States smoked daily (more than half of them smoking 10 or more cigarettes/ day) and that almost 28% smoked at least monthly. The 30-day rate of smoking among 12th graders has fallen by only 1.6 percentage points since 1981. Data from the most recent 1991 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), another national survey of 9th-12th graders, showed a similar 17% rate of frequent cigarette use (cigarette smoking on 20 or more of the 30 days preceding the survey) for 12th-graders (CDC, 1992). Among the entire sample of 9th-12th graders, the frequent smoking rate increased from 8.4% in Grade 9 to 17% in grade 12. While smoking prevalence and rates have become increasingly similar for males and females, males tend to be heavier smokers and are far more likely than girls to use smokeless tobacco (CDC, 1992).