{"id":5890,"date":"2010-02-05T21:18:56","date_gmt":"2010-02-05T21:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=5890"},"modified":"2010-02-06T10:23:43","modified_gmt":"2010-02-06T10:23:43","slug":"more-good-news-on-teen-smoking-in-usa-rates-at-or-near-record-lows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2010\/02\/more-good-news-on-teen-smoking-in-usa-rates-at-or-near-record-lows\/","title":{"rendered":"More good news on teen smoking in USA: Rates at or near record lows"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cigarette smoking rates among American teens in 2008 are at the lowest
\nlevels since at least as far back as the early 1990s, according to the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study based at the University of Michigan, which has been surveying national samples of 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students each year since 1991.<\/p>\n

MTF tracks tobacco use with surveys administered to a national sample of over 45,000 students in about 400 secondary schools each year. This year represents the low point for smoking in all three grades. The proportions of students indicating any smoking in the prior 30 days (called \u201cmonthly prevalence\u201d) stands at 7 percent, 12 percent, and 20 percent in grades 8, 10, and 12, respectively.<\/p>\n

These rates reflect large declines since the recent peaks in the mid-1990s: 8th graders\u2019 smoking rates are down by two thirds, 10th graders\u2019 by more than half, and 12th graders\u2019 by nearly half. \u201cI can\u2019t begin to tell you what a dramatic difference this is going to make in the health and longevity of this generation,\u201d said Lloyd Johnston, the study\u2019s principal investigator. \u201cThe fact that teen smoking is still declining is particularly encouraging, because a couple of years ago it looked like the long decline in youth smoking might be coming to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Across the three grades combined, there was a statistically significant decline in monthly smoking prevalence from 13.6 percent in 2007 to 12.6 percent in 2008. All grades showed some decline this year, but it was greatest in the upper grades. This year\u2019s declines are also greatest among males and students who say they are college-bound.<\/p>\n

The study has actually tracked the smoking behavior of 12th graders for a considerably longer period, going back to 1975. Their smoking rate today is the lowest it has been over that entire 33- year period. The investigators note that in the early 1990s cigarette smoking was making a rapid comeback among American teens, one to which the MTF study drew considerable public attention. A number of governmental and other institutional responses to the growing threat followed, perhaps the most
\nimportant of which was the tobacco settlement between the industry and the state attorneys general. That settlement brought about some immediate changes in cigarette advertising in the country, including the termination of the Joe Camel ads, and it launched the American Legacy Foundation, which has sponsored national antismoking ad campaigns aimed at youth in the years since. It also forced the tobacco companies to raise the price of cigarettes considerably in order to cover the costs of the settlement, and increasing the price has been shown to be a deterrent to youth smoking. A number of states and some municipalities have raised prices still further by increasing their excise taxes on tobacco.<\/p>\n

One important reason that smoking rates have been dropping for over 10 years is that fewer students even try cigarettes. The proportion of 8th graders who ever smoked a cigarette is down from 49 percent in 1996 to 21 percent in 2008\u2014a decline of nearly six tenths.<\/p>\n

Attitudes About Smoking
\nOne belief that has proven to influence the likelihood that young people use a drug is their belief about whether its use poses a danger for the user. For cigarettes, there has been a substantial increase since 1995 in the proportions of teens who see pack-a-day smoking as involving \u201cgreat risk\u201d to the smoker. And the proportions of teens who said that they \u201cdisapproved\u201d of pack-a-day smoking began to rise a year later and continued into recent years <\/p>\n

However, the increase in perceived risk did not continue into 2008; indeed, there was a significant decline in this measure in 2008 among 12th graders. Disapproval of smoking, while quite high, appears to have levelled off in 2008, as well.
\nThe great majority of teens today say that they \u201cprefer to date people who don\u2019t smoke\u201d: 83 percent, 80 percent, and 75 percent in grades 8, 10, and 12, and nearly two thirds of them think that \u201cbecoming a smoker reflects poor judgment.\u201d<\/p>\n

These attitudes became more widespread after the mid-1990s, but have not grown much over the past few years, except in 12th grade, where the earlier cohorts of 8th graders are still working their way up the age spectrum, bringing their more disapproving attitudes toward cigarette smoking with them. The investigators say that teens should take note that becoming a smoker will make them less attractive to the great majority of the opposite sex\u2014a high price to pay.<\/p>\n

Availability of Cigarettes to Teens
\nThe proportion of teens reporting that they could get cigarettes \u201cfairly easily\u201d or \u201cvery easily,\u201d if they wanted some, has been declining for some years, particularly among younger teens. Today, 57 percent of 8th graders\u2014most of whom are 13 or 14 years old\u2014say they could get cigarettes fairly easily.<\/p>\n

As high as that number is, it is down considerably from 77 percent in 1996. Availability for 10th graders is higher, as might be expected, but fewer of them say they could get cigarettes easily in 2008 (77 percent) than in 1996 (91 percent). It appears that the efforts of many states and communities to get retail outlets to stop selling to underage smokers have been having some success, the researchers say. Despite that, however, the majority of teens\u2014even younger teens\u2014still say that they can get cigarettes if they want them.<\/p>\n

Source: Johnston, L. D., et al. (December 11, 2008) http:\/\/www.monitoringthefuture.org <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cigarette smoking rates among American teens in 2008 are at the lowest levels since at least as far back as the early 1990s, according to the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study based at the University of Michigan, which has been surveying national samples of 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students each year since 1991. MTF tracks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5890\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}