Smoking and cardiovascular risk: Role of personality in adolescent smoking

Abstract

Work to mitigate the increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) brought about by cigarette smoking compels primary and secondary prevention activity among adolescents. Personality plays a prominent role among the variables associated with adolescent onset and maintenance of smoking. The role of personality in adolescent smoking is examined by contrasting results from research exploring association versus causality and then evidence from studies examining onset versus maintenance in relation to models of personality, risk, smoking beliefs/knowledge, self-esteem/self-efficacy, locus of control, and religiosity. Analysis using the two comparisons demonstrates the need for research in the area to consider dynamical approaches to explain changes in adolescent smoking behavior more deeply. For example, advances in the mathematical sophistication of adolescent smoking research make it possible to understand how changes in knowledge about the health consequences of smoking influence the onset or maintenance of smoking among adolescents. The development of more dynamical explanations of adolescent behavior may prove valuable explanations of behavior among adults trying to quit smoking to reduce the risk of CVD.