The report summarises the results of a longitudinal study by Dr Barbara Lloyd, senior research fellow in social psychology and Dr Kevin Lucas, health promotion policy analyst with East Sussex, Brighton and Hove Health Authority and visiting research fellow in health and social psychology at the University of Sussex. The study was commissioned by the Department of Health in response to growing concerns over the prevalence of smoking in teenage girls and the Department's aim of reducing smoking in pregnancy by the year 2000. The number of girls starting smoking has overtaken that of boys in recent years. The report found a complex relationship between sexual maturity and smoking. Sexually mature boys are more likely to smoke than immature boys of any age between 11 and 16, but from the age of 14, sexually immature girls are more likely to start smoking than their sexually mature friends.
Smoking is seen as rebellious or 'hard' which are seen as fashionable traits.
Smoking is strongly linked with body image, but concerns about thinness were minor factors in smoking intake, a contradiction of the popular belief that girls use smoking to lose weight. This may indicate that intervention techniques should address smokers and non-smokers differently.