Health Status > Adolescents

CIGARETTE SMOKING

As reported in the Monitoring the Future Study by the University of Michigan, cigarette smoking declined among 8th and 10th graders but increased slightly among 12th graders from 2003 to 2004. Among 8th graders, 9.2 percent reported smoking at least one time during the 30 days preceding the survey in 2004, compared to 10.2 percent during the previous year. The rate among 10th graders in 2004 was 16.0 percent, and the rate among 12th graders was 25.0 percent; this is compared to 16.7 and 24.4 percent, respectively, in 2003. These figures represent a 56 percent decline for 8th graders and a 47 percent decline for 10th graders since use peaked among those grades in 1996. Among 12th graders, use peaked in 1997 and has seen a more modest decline of 33 percent. Factors that appear to have contributed to the decline include increases in perceived risk and disapproval of smoking, high cigarette prices, and anti-smoking advertising campaigns.

The prevalence of smoking among teens increased substantially between 1991 and 1996. These increases occurred in virtually every socio-demographic group: both sexes, those planning on attending college and not, those living in all four regions of the country, those living in rural and urban areas, and among Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics. Since 1996, rates have declined across all demographic groups consistently. Although absolute rates of smoking have declined among adolescents, certain subgroups are less likely to smoke than others. Students who are not college-bound are more likely to smoke than college-bound high school students, and Black adolescents are less likely to smoke cigarettes than their White counterparts. The decline in rates of cigarette smoking since 1996 is likely to have important long-term health consequences for this generation of adolescents.

> Line Chart: Any Cigarette Use Among High School Students in the Past 30 Days, by Grade: 1975-2004