Toward explaining the higher incidence of cigarette smoking among black Americans.

Using the 1987 General Social Survey data, the factors related to the disproportionately higher rates of cigarette smoking by Black Americans were investigated. Previous studies have found smoking to be highly correlated with age, social class, and occupational stress, among other factors. It is uncertain whether race is an independent predictor of smoking rates or whether it is primarily a correlate of other demographic variables. Loglinear modeling and logit regression analysis suggested that racial differences between Blacks and Whites in smoking may be spurious. The multivariate analysis established that class and stress differences remained more potent than race in accounting for variations in smoking behavior.