The primary aims of this report are to (1) identify the incidence of daily smoking at several time points during the adolescent and young adult years, including the prevalence of new daily smokers relative to repeat daily smokers; (2) identify several specific developmental patterns of smoking; and (3) examine the specific developmental patterns of smoking in relation to various descriptive characteristics. This analysis uses data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), where the smoking behavior of a nationally representative cohort of 1988 eighth-graders was assessed at various time points over a 12-year period (i.e., from about age 14 to age 26). Results show that 6 percent at 8th grade, 12 percent at 10th grade, 17 percent at 12th grade, and one-quarter at the age of about 26 years reported usually smoking one or more cigarettes a day. Using the information obtained about individuals' smoking behavior over the time period, 68 percent were identified as nondaily smokers, followed by teen/young adult smokers (15 percent), and then teen smokers (9 percent) and late-onset smokers (8 percent). Bivariate and multivariate analyses are used to examine these developmental patterns in relation to individual demographic characteristics, family demographic characteristics, and various education-related characteristics. It was found, for example, that adolescent smoking is associated with lower academic achievement, which is consistent with prior research.
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