Social influences on cigarette initiation among college students.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the relationship of demographic and social influence with initiation of cigarette use among undergraduates. METHODS: Students were mailed anonymous surveys including 437 participants who indicated that they had not smoked cigarettes before age 18. Of those, 107 became late initiators (24%), and 330 remained never smokers (76%). RESULTS: Those who drank alcohol in college and had at least 1 parent with a college education were more likely to initiate smoking than were those who did not drink and neither parent had attended college. CONCLUSIONS: Strategies that focus on reducing alcohol and tobacco use need to be tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]