An examination of the relationship between adolescents' initial smoking experience and their exposure to peer and family member smoking

Sensitivity to the initial smoking experience, upon initial smoking experimentation, is associated with youth smoking. We determined the association between exposure to smoking from peers and family members on the symptoms of the initial smoking experience of adolescents. Data from a survey of 3280 high school students in the British Columbia, Canada were obtained; including information on demographics, tobacco use history, symptoms of initial smoking experience, and the smoking behaviours of peers and family member's (from which an 'exposure to smoking from peers and family members' variable was created). In multivariate logistic regression models, individuals with higher scores on the 'exposure to smoking from peers and family members' variable were more likely to report positive symptoms of initial smoking experience, even after controlling for confounding variables. Higher scores on the 'exposure to smoking from peers and family members' variable was associated with increased 'initial smoking experience' scores. Initial smoking experience scores (i.e. total number of reported initial symptoms) weakly mediated the relationship between exposure to smoking from peers and family members and current smoking. The present findings suggest that exposure to smoking from peers and family members may be an important factor to consider in understanding youths initial smoking experiences.