Adolescent susceptibility to tobacco: a panel analysis
Creators: name: University Of California Office Of The President
Publisher: name: University of California Office of the President
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/00dmfq477
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: Considerable advances have been made in our understanding of the etiology and health effects of tobacco consumption and nicotine dependence. It is also increasingly clear that the development of tobacco dependence involves the confluence of a number of “vectors of vulnerability.” Adolescence, a transition period characterized by a number of physiological and psychological changes, represents one important vector. Over 90% of smokers begin smoking before the age of 18, yet little is known about what it is that makes adolescents vulnerable to the initiation of smoking and susceptible to tobacco dependence. Several lines of accumulated evidence indicate the critical role that the initial reward effects of cigarette smoking can play in setting the stage for subsequent nicotine use. Though much of the previous work on the psychopharmacology of nicotine as well as studies on patterns of tobacco-use have relied upon adult animal and human models, emerging evidence suggests that the neurobiological effects of nicotine differ in the developing brain. Thus, models of tobacco-use based on adults may not generalize to adolescent populations. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The increasing trend in smoking prevalence among adolescents underscores the need for intensifying efforts at delineating how genetic, biological, psychological, social and environmental vectors contribute to smoking behavior patterns and susceptibility to tobacco dependence in youth. Information related to cigarette smoking among adolescents derives almost exclusively from retrospective and anecdotal reports. Among adults, such reports rarely correspond closely with actual data obtained from self-monitoring of smoking. 
 
 
 
 
 
 The major objectives of this study are to: 1) model the influences of situational/contextual and trait factors on the smoking behavior of adolescents and young adults in everyday settings, and 2) determine the contribution of individual differences in hostility/impulsivity to patterns of cigarette smoking and to nicotine-dependence. For example, there is evidence that nicotine reduces aggressive behavior in animal models, but little is known regarding nicotine’s effects on anger and aggression in humans. However, no studies have examined whether the putative anger-palliative and attention-enhancing effects of nicotine represent particularly salient mechanisms reinforcing tobacco use among hostile/impulsive individuals. We propose to identify the stimuli and cues associated with smoking behavior and urges, as well as to examine the effects of cigarette smoking on the subjective and behavioral responses of adolescents and young adults in natural settings, with the goal of identifying distinct patterns of tobacco use and susceptibility. We also will determine the role of trait and behavioral characteristics (i.e., hostility, impulsivity), gender, and age in the above relationships. The results of this project will provide important information related to the role of personality and situational factors in the susceptibility to initiation and maintenance of smoking in adolescents and young adults.