Sexual abuse and smoking among college student women.

Despite the potential influence of sexual abuse in childhood and adulthood on smoking among women, few studies have examined these variables. In this exploratory study, 296 women completed an anonymous survey. Results revealed that women who were sexually abused as children were 3.8 times more likely than their non-abused counterparts to be current smokers and were 2.1 times more likely to have initiated smoking before the age of 14. In all analyses, sexual abuse was a better predictor of smoking than were status variables. These preliminary findings highlight sexual abuse in childhood as a gender-specific stressor that increases girls and women's risk for smoking. Hence, sexual abuse is worthy of further investigation as well as of inclusion in new gender-tailored smoking prevention and cessation programs.