Racial/ethnic differences in the longitudinal progression of co-occurring negative affect and cigarette use: From adolescence to young adulthood

AimsThis study examined the longitudinal progression of the co-occurrence of cigarette use and negative affect among the general population of U.S. adolescents and young adults and between racial/ethnic groups.MethodsData for this study consisted of Waves 4, 6, and 8 of the NLSY97 longitudinal study containing a nationally representative sample of U.S. adolescents and young adults. A total of 7979 adolescents (Mean age at Wave 4 = 17.98, SD = 1.44, 49% female) were included in the analyses. To investigate the co-morbidity between negative affect and cigarette use, a latent factor of negative affect and single indicator of cigarette consumption were examined at each wave. A three wave Bivariate Autoregressive Cross-Lagged Effect Model was estimated to test the conjoint trajectory of negative affect and smoking.ResultsFor all racial/ethnic groups prior negative affect status influenced future negative affect between waves and prior negative affect was positively related to increases in smoking in subsequent waves. The longitudinal trajectory of negative affect for the three racial/ethnic groups was the same, but racial/ethnic group differences were observed in the strength of the longitudinal relationship between previous and future cigarette use. Specifically, the following racial/ethnic differences were observed, even after controlling for the effect of SES; White young adults were found to exhibit the strongest association between cigarette use in the first two waves, followed by Hispanic individuals and lastly by African Americans. In the last two waves, African American young adults were found to have the strongest association between cigarette use at the latter two waves, followed by White individuals.ConclusionsBoth negative affect and cigarette consumption influence each other during the transition between late adolescence and young adulthood but the magnitude of the associations between cigarettes use across waves differed between racial/ethnic groups. Implications for prevention and treatment programs include considering both cigarette use and negative affect as two factors that jointly impact each other and that should be targeted simultaneously.

► These cross-lagged longitudinal analyses examining cigarette and negative affect comorbidity spanning late adolescence and young adulthood have revealed that one’s level of negative affect influences not only future increases in negative affect but also future rates of cigarette use.
► Racial/ethnic differences were observed in the development of cigarette use across late adolescence and young adulthood where White, African American and Hispanic participants were more likely to increase cigarette use but at different magnitudes.
► Controlling for the comorbidity between negative affect and cigarette use these results suggest that Hispanic youth who smoke during late adolescence are less likely than White and African American youth to smoke during early adulthood.