Predictors of smoking cessation from adolescence into young adulthood

Although smoking cigarettes is hazardous to health and cessation has positive health benefits, few smokers are able to successfully quit. The purpose of this study was to examine the predictors of smoking cessation in a nonclinical sample of 134 male and 190 female, young adult, regular (daily) smokers within a social learning and maturing-out framework. Four waves of prospective, longitudinal data from a community sample followed from adolescence into young adulthood were analyzed. Logistic regression analyses were used to test the effects of differential associations, definitions, differential reinforcement, and changes in adult role status on smoking cessation in young adulthood. Becoming married to a nonsmoker and decreases in the proportion of friends who smoked were significant predictors of cessation. Current smokers and stoppers did not differ significantly in terms of prior intensity of cigarette use or alcohol abuse/dependence. They also did not differ in terms of psychological characteristics, including depression and prior coping use of cigarettes. Social networks were more important than social roles for predicting cessation in young adulthood. Thus, smoking cessation programs should focus on social learning processes. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.