Cancer Control Research
5R01CA080301-04
Jamner, Larry D.
ADOLESCENT DYSFUNCTION AND SMOKING SUSCEPTIBILITY
AbstractDESCRIPTION: (Applicant's Description) The major objective of this proposal
is to evaluate the influence of situational/contextual and trait factors and
the role of individual differences in nicotine-dependence susceptibility in
adolescent smoking. Over 90% of smokers begin smoking before the age of 18,
yet little is known about what makes adolescents vulnerable to the
initiation of smoking and susceptible to tobacco dependence. Psychological
traits including impulsivity, aggressiveness, negative affectivity, and
attention-deficit are associated with a greater incidence of tobacco use,
yet little is known about how these factors contribute to the initiation and
maintenance of tobacco use in adolescents. The aims of this project are
directly related to the NIH's research priority on psychological,
physiological, and pharmacological determinants of adolescent cigarette
smoking as well as the initiative's focus on temperament and
neuropsychiatric factors.
Two hundred and forty adolescents entering the 9th grade (80-never smokers,
80-experimental smokers, 80-regular smokers) will be signaled to fill out a
diary twice an hour indicating their location, activities, social context,
and whether they had smoked or consumed food and other substances. They
will be asked to report on their moods and their degree of hunger and urge
to smoke. In addition, heart rate will be recorded continuously to
determine its role as a discriminative stimulus for smoking as well as an
index of the physiological response to cigarette smoking. Each group will
comprise approximately equal numbers of adolescents with externalizing and
internalizing behavior patterns and healthy controls. Salivary cotinine
will be used to validate diary reports of cigarette smoking. The
self-monitoring will be done on two school and two weekend days. This 4-day
sequence will be repeated six times over three years. Subsamples of these
adolescents, including 24 with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD) and externalizing behavior problems, 24 with ADHD and internalizing
behavior problems. and 24 healthy controls will be studied in the
laboratory to determine the effects of nicotine (patch) on subjective,
behavioral. autonomic, and adrenergic measures. Analyses will model the
stimuli and cues associated with smoking behavior and urges and how these
change over time, as well as examine the effects of cigarette smoking on
subjective, behavioral, and psychophysiological responses of adolescents in
natural settings and in the laboratory. We will also determine the role of
trait and behavioral characteristics (conduct/impulse, negative affectivity,
and attention-deficit disorders) and gender in the above relationships. The
long range goal is to utilize the information obtained on susceptibility to
smoking in adolescents in designing more effective smoking prevention and
cessation programs.
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