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Longitudinal Associations Between Smoking and Depressive Symptoms Among Adolescent Girls

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Abstract

Adolescence is an important period for initiation of smoking and manifestation of depression, which are often comorbid. Researchers have examined associations between depressive symptoms and smoking to elucidate whether those with increased depressive symptoms smoke more to self-medicate, whether those who smoke experience increased subsequent depressive symptoms, or both. Collectively, there have been mixed findings; however, studies have been limited by (1) cross-sectional or short-term longitudinal data or (2) the use of methods that test associations, or only one direction in the associations, rather than a fully-reciprocal model to examine directionality. This study examined the associations between smoking and depressive symptoms in a sample of adolescent girls using latent dual change scores to model (1) the effect of smoking on change in depressive symptoms, and simultaneously (2) the effect of depressive symptoms on change in smoking across ages 11–20. Data were from a cohort-sequential prospective longitudinal study (N = 262). Girls were enrolled by age cohort (11, 13, 15, and 17 years) and were primarily White (61 %) or African American (31 %). Data were restructured by age. Every 6 months, girls reported depressive symptoms and cigarette use. Results indicated that controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, higher levels of smoking predicted a greater increase in depressive symptoms across adolescence. These findings suggest that a higher level of cigarette smoking does contribute to more depressive symptoms, which has implications for prevention of depression and for intervention and future research.

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Notes

  1. A model using smoking in the past 30 days was also tested, and found not to be significant; this is likely due to the low variability of 30-day smoking—across ages, between 0 % (ages 11 and 12) and 32 % (age 17) reported any smoking in the past 30 days.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by grant number R01 DA 16402, National Institute of Drug Abuse, NIH, PI; Lorah D. Dorn, PhD and by USPHS grant #TR000077-04 from the National Center for Research Resources, NIH and by funds from the Bureau of Health Professions (BHPr), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), under grant #T32HP10027. We also thank the editor and two reviewers who provided excellent feedback that contributed to the quality of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Avenue; MLC 4000, Cincinnati, OH, 45229-3026, USA

    Sarah J. Beal

  2. The University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA

    Sonya Negriff

  3. The Pennsylvania State University, 201 East Health and Human Development, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Lorah D. Dorn

  4. Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

    Stephanie Pabst

  5. University of Michigan, Michigan, USA

    John Schulenberg

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  1. Sarah J. Beal
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Correspondence to Sarah J. Beal.

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Beal, S.J., Negriff, S., Dorn, L.D. et al. Longitudinal Associations Between Smoking and Depressive Symptoms Among Adolescent Girls. Prev Sci 15, 506–515 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-013-0402-x

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