NCJ Number
177250
Date Published
1998
Length
13 pages
Annotation
After a long and steady increase in smoking among American teens, which began in the early 1990s, smoking rates among secondary school students have started to turn downward, according to the 1998 results from the Monitoring the Future Study, which has been tracking national smoking rates among American high school seniors annually since 1975, and among 8th grade and 10th grade students each year since 1991.
Abstract
In 1997 8th grade and 10th grade students began to show slight improvements, even though use among 12th graders was still rising. This year all three grade levels, encompassing young people aged 13 to 18, show some decrease in smoking. The 1-year decline for eighth graders' daily cigarette use is not statistically significant, but the 2-year decline since 1996 is. The proportion of students at all three grade levels who view smoking as dangerous has been increasing gradually since 1995, and the proportion who disapprove of smoking has risen some since 1996. The proportion of students indicating that they smoked at all during the 30 days preceding the survey has fallen by 1.9 points over the past 2 years among the 8th graders (to 19.1 percent) and by 2.8 points among the 10th graders (to 27.6 percent) over the same interval. Among 12th graders, the decline has been smaller: a 1.4 point drop this year to 35.1 percent. The turnaround in smoking can be seen among male and female students in all four major regions of the country at nearly all socioeconomic levels. College-bound students have shown evidence of a decline in smoking at all three grade levels; whereas those not planning to attend college show more of a leveling rather than a decline. The improvements also have been concentrated among those whose parents are well-educated and among those living in more urban areas. 4 tables, 5 figures