Tobacco use in adolescence: longitudinal links to later problem behavior among African American and Puerto Rican urban young adults.

In this study, the authors assessed the relationship between adolescent tobacco smoking and measures of inner control, deviant behavior, and associating with deviant peers, which are indicators of problem behavior. African American (N = 333) and Puerto Rican (N = 329) early adolescents completed questionnaires in their classrooms in 1990 at Time 1 (T1) and were individually interviewed thereafter when they were late adolescents in 1995 at Time 2 (T2) and as young adults in 2000 at Time 3 (T3). The authors used ordinary least squares regression analysis to assess the comparative association of adolescent smoking patterns at T1 and T2 and the young adult outcomes at T3; they controlled for demographic variables, level of the outcome measure at T2, and marijuana use at T2. The analyses suggested that experimental tobacco smokers demonstrated more problem behaviors than did nonsmokers, and late and continuous smokers demonstrated more problem behaviors as young adults than did experimental smokers and nonusers. These findings may provide a useful guide to a next step that involves translational research.