Association of Depressive Symptoms and School Adolescents' Smoking: A Cross-Lagged Analysis

Abstract

This study examined the association of depressive symptoms of adolescents and their smoking behavior. A national cohort sample of school adolescents (N = 5,855) who participated in the 1989 and 1993 Teenage Attitudes and Practices Survey was obtained. The information from this survey included measures of smoking behavior and a series of factors related to depressive symptoms during a 3-yr. span. A cross-lagged analysis with Kendall tau b correlations was used. Judging from the magnitude of the cross-lagged correlations, the direction of causation cannot be ascertained. Rather, a reciprocal relationship between depression and smoking may be suggested.

Associations between Smoking and Depression in Adolescence: An Integrative Review

“…Five of eight longitudinal studies found the statistically significant relationships between smoking and depression: Three studies found depression as an antecedent to smoking, and two studies found the bidirectional relationship between smoking and depression (Dierker et al, 2004;Fleming et al, 2002;Gilpin et al, 2004;Goodman & Captman, 2000;Wang et al, 1996). Despite the fact that the majority of the 18 studies found a statistically significant relationship between smoking and a putative measure of depression, these significant relationships may not reflect the same processes that are assessed with more valid measures of depression.…”

“…Six longitudinal studies investigating a bidirectional relationship between smoking and depression reached inconsistent results. Some studies found a bidirectional relationship (Brown, Lewinsohn, Seeley, & Wagner, 1996;Wang, Fitzhugh, Turner, Fu, & Westerfield, 1996;Windle & Windle, 2001), but the others found unidirectional relationships, either depression as a predictor of smoking or smoking as a predictor of depression (Goodman & Captman, 2000;Patton, Carlin, Coffey, & Wolfe, 1998;Wu & Anthony, 1999). Brown et al (1996) investigated the effects of smoking at Time 1 (i.e., those who smoked three or more times per week vs. those who smoked two or less times per week) on the incidence of depression between Time 1 and Time 2 among those who did not experience depression at Time 1.…”

Depressivitet og røyking – En prospektiv panelstudie blant ungdom i Hordaland

“…Imidlertid foreligger det nå flere longitudinelle studier blant ungdom der det er vist at depresjoner eller høy skåre på skalaer som måler depressivitet predikerer røyking på senere tidspunkt (24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34).…”

“…Wang et al (33) ser på tidsforskjøvne assosiasjoner (cross lagged associations) mellom røyking og depressivitet på ett tidspunkt og de samme variablene 4 år se-nere. De finner at de to tidsforskjøvne sammenhengene målt med Kendalls tau begge var statistisk signifikante og omtrent like store.…”

“…At kausaliteten er såpass entydig som vist ovenfor, er overraskende sett i lys av tidligere forskning. Nokså mange studier har nemlig konkludert med at kausaliteten går begge veier (25,26,33,34), og en del forskere har hevdet at denne gjensidige kausaliteten egentlig kan vaere uttrykk for at det eksisterer bakenforliggende forhold som er årsak både til depressivitet og røyking. Vår undersøkelse tyder på at depressivitet i noen grad kan vaere en årsak til at ungdom røyker, i hvert fall når de naermer seg siste del av tenårene.…”