Stress influence on smoking behavior of teenagers

Rationale: Previous studies suggested that stress levels might influence smoking behavior. Objectives: To investigate the stress levels among teenagers according to their smoking history. To correlate stress levels with scores of the University of Sao Paulo Reasons for Smoking Scale (USP-RSS) in the current smoking group. Methods: Two thousand and fourteen high school students answered a standard questionnaire including the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and the USP-RSS. Comparisons among scores were performed by ANOVA on ranks and Dunn's post test when indicated. Associations between USP-RSS domains scores and PSS scores were performed by Spearman's correlation coefficient. Results: The students were classified in 3 groups: G1, never smokers (n= 1283; men= 595; age= 16.1±1.1 years); G2, subjects who have experimented smoking at least once in their lives (n=487; men= 224; age= 16.3±1.1years), and G3, current smokers (n=244; men= 128; age= 16.4±1.0 years). The mean PSS for G1 (16.5±6.4) was significantly lower than those of G2 (18.0±6.8) and G3 (19.2±7.2) (p 0.05). There were significant correlations between PSS and the following USP-RSS domains: addiction (p=0.015; r=0.161), tension reduction (p=0.0002; r=0.243), stimulation (p=0.013; r=0.164), automatism (p=0.020; r=0.154). Weight control showed only a marginally significant correlation (p= 0.052; r=0.130). Conclusion: Stress levels in teenagers appear to contribute to the smoking experimentation, but not to the addiction establishment. Stress levels show small, but significant, correlations with important factors that contribute to smoking maintenance. Supported by: FAPESP 09/50562-0