Weaker Self-Esteem in Adolescence Predicts Smoking

Background. To study whether weaker self-esteem in adolescence is connected with smoking behavior in adulthood. Methods. An age cohort born in 1979 responded to the Lawrence Self-Esteem Questionnaire (LAWSEQ) at the age of 16 ( = 1, 072). Respondents’ smoking behavior was monitored annually during adolescence and 75.3% ( = 813) of them remained nonsmokers during adolescence. A follow-up questionnaire eliciting smoking behavior was sent to the adolescent nonsmokers at the age of 29 years. Response rate at follow-up was 46.2% ( = 376). Results.Weaker self-esteem (LAWSEQscore ≥ 3) during the adolescence was not significantly associated with smoking in adulthood. However, those respondents who had weaker self-esteem in adolescence had increased risk of having been smoking regularly (adjusted OR 1.8, 95% CI 1.1–3.0) although not all of them were smokers at the time of the follow-up. Conclusions.Those with weaker self-esteem in adolescence are more likely to smoke regularly in adulthood.Copyright © 2015 Antti J. Saari et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited