Risk and protective factors for tobacco use among 8th- and 10th-grade African American students in Virginia.

Abstract

These findings suggest that tobacco prevention programs that aim to increase school connectedness while decreasing youth risk behaviors might be useful in preventing cigarette use among African American adolescents. Given the relative importance of peer drug use in predicting smoking among African American youth, more work is needed that explores the accuracy of youths' perceptions of their friends' cigarette use and how family factors may moderate this risk.