The roles of parenting, church attendance, and depression in adolescent smoking

The aim of the present study was to identify contextual factors related to smoking among urban African-American and White adolescents. We administered a survey assessing demographic and psychosocial variables to 299 adolescents in an urban pediatric clinic in the Midwest. Results indicated that being female, older age, lower academic performance, depressive symptoms, less frequent church attendance, parental smoking, and parental attitudes toward smoking were related to adolescent smoking. After controlling for demographics, the multivariate model predicting adolescent smoking included depressive symptoms, less frequent church attendance, and parental disapproval of smoking. Given these findings, efforts to decrease adolescent smoking may be enhanced by attending to depressive symptoms demonstrated by adolescents as well as contextual factors including parental attitudes and church attendance.