ABSTRACT
A number of investigators have attempted to determine which variables are associated with cigarette smoking by examining bivariate relationships. Relationships have been found with attitudes, knowledge, parental smoking, peer smoking, and school achievement among others. The higher the knowledge score and the more negative the attitude toward smoking the lower was the involvement with cigarettes. The amount of smoking in the child’s immediate environment also had an effect. Smoking was positively associated with increasing smoking among peer and parents. The percentage of variance accounted for in 1978 smoking status by the 1975 predictors is 32 per cent. The importance of peer and parental smoking in both 1978 and indirectly through smoking status in 1975 suggest that social acceptability or unacceptability may be one of the most important explanatory constructs in initiation to smoking. The higher the knowledge score and the more negative the attitude toward smoking the lower was the involvement with cigarettes.
