The impact of early life stress on risk of tobacco smoking initiation by adolescents

Abstract

Aims Our study aimed to examine the association between early life stress and early initiation of alcohol and tobacco use. Design This prospective cohort study of women and children belongs to the Ukrainian component of the European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood. Setting Dniprodzerzhynsk, a city of some 250,000 inhabitants in south central Ukraine. Participants All 4398 women who visited antenatal clinics between December 25, 1992 and July 23, 1994, planned to continue their pregnancy, and were permanent residents of the city were invited to participate. Of the 4398 invitees, 2148 agreed and 1020 of the mother-child pairs were available for complete follow-up until the children were 16 years old. Measurements When study children reached ages 3 and 7, their mothers completed questionnaires about their children's exposure to and impact from a standard list of recent stressful life events. From the data on event prevalence and severity, we assigned each child to low, medium, or high early life stress. When the children became age 16, they completed questionnaires about their history of smoking and drinking. Findings In multivariate analysis that controlled for current level of family income, current family type, current school type, year of child's birth, lifetime smoking and current drinking by mother, and education of mother and father, girls with high stress at age 3 had 2.2 times (95% confidence interval: 1.23-4.08) higher odds than girls with low stress to start smoking early. Conclusions Our study may be the first to use a longitudinal study design to examine early life stress as a risk factor for early smoking initiation in adolescence.

Heavy smoking rate trends and related factors in Korean occupational groups: analysis of KNHANES 2007–2012 data

“… 25 Stressful events in early life might be a risk factor for early smoking initiation in adolescence. 26 Race, ethnicity and culture were reported to be factors related to current smoking prevalence. 27 …”

Nicotine, adolescence, and stress: A review of how stress can modulate the negative consequences of adolescent nicotine abuse

“…Sex differences in the motivation to smoke emerge during adolescence, where adolescent females report higher incidences of smoking with higher perceived family and social stressors while adolescent males report general stressors as a motivator to continue smoking (Byrne & Mazanov, 1999; Byrne & Mazanov, 2003). Additionally, early life stress increases the risk of smoking in adolescent girls but not in adolescent boys (Iakunchykova et al, 2015). These clinical studies suggest that stress is an important moderator of smoking behaviors in adolescents and sex differences may further contribute to this relationship.…”

“…Further, this review covered studies examining the association between adolescent stress and the initiation and continuation of tobacco use during adolescence (Byrne et al, 1995; Byrne & Mazanov 1999; Finkelstein et al, 2006; Iakunchykova et al, 2015). Given the strong association in clinical research suggesting a link between stress and adolescent smoking behaviors it is imperative that future preclinical work elucidate the underlying biological and neural processes that contribute to adolescent stress increasing the propensity for adolescent nicotine abuse.…”

Prices, Inflation, and Smoking Onset: The Case of Argentina

“…Inflation may impact time preference, which may in turn affect smoking (Gong 2006;Khwaja, Silverman, and Sloan 2007). Or times of high inflation may lead to increased stress which in turn may effect smoking onset (Finkelstein, Kubzansky, and Goodman 2006;Iakunchykova et al 2015).…”