Why Do Young Adults Start Smoking? Researchers Identify 3 Risk Factors

Considering all we know about cigarettes and their scary health effects, why would anyone start smoking them? While it's impossible to pinpoint a single reason for why any one person begins, a new study identifies three risk factors for taking up the habit.
The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Montreal School of Public Health, suggests that for people between the ages of 18 and 24, the three biggest risk factors for starting smoking are being impulsive, using alcohol regularly, and getting poor grades in school.
The research, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, is based on data from 1,293 teens from the greater Montreal area who were part of the Nicotine Dependence in Teens study that started in 1999. The teens were followed up in 22 "cycles," from when they were at an average age of 12.7 to when they were at an average age of 24.
By cycle 22, 75 percent of the teens had tried smoking. Forty-four percent of the teens started smoking before entering high school, 43 percent started during high school, and 14 percent started sometime in the six years post-high school.
Not all those who tried cigarettes continued to smoke, but researchers found that impulsivity, poor grades and regular alcohol use were the three risk factors associated with those who began smoking after high school -- or when they were between ages 18 and 24.
Study researcher Jennifer O'Loughlin, a professor at the university, speculated in a statement that one potential reason impulsivity may play a role in smoking in young adulthood is because "parents of impulsive children exercise tighter control when they are living with them at home to protect their children from adopting behaviors that can lead to smoking, and this protection may diminish over time."
Alcohol consumption could also be linked with starting smoking because alcohol "reduces inhibitions and self-control," she added in the statement.

Age Limits on Tobacco Products: Debating Issue

Recently there has been taken a decision by New York City Council to raise the minimum age for tobacco buying. Thus it presupposes that to purchase any tobacco product you must be at least 21 and not 18 as it was before.
Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, explained the stated decision by the personal notice that most teen-agers start smoking before age 21 as it is not forbidden. If the discussed decision comes into force teen-agers simply will not have any other alternative than to wait till 21, and there is a possibility that many of them will give up the idea.
In fact the situation is not so simple as it may seem at the first sight. The raise of minimum age to purchase cigarettes can not stop those who intend to smoke. And Britain is an example of a similar situation when the minimum age to purchase cigarettes was raised from 16 to 18. Though some positive changes were noticed the new legislation could not control the volume of smoked cigarettes.
Moreover the raise of minimum age does not exclude any other sources to get cigarettes. It is not obligatory for those under 21 to buy cigarettes themselves, they can just ask someone who has already a right to buy them. Thus the situation is quite double. From the one hand the raise of minimum age should exclude the possibility to buy cigarettes by teen-agers, but from the other hand it is difficult to predict any other possibilities to get cigarettes.