Hispanic Middle School Youth Have Highest Susceptibility to Smoking

Susceptibility to smoking, defined as a lack of firm commitment to not smoke, raises the risk of smoking experimentation among youth. Racial and ethnic disparities in susceptibility have been identified, but how such disparities change over time has not been described.

Using the National Youth Tobacco Survey from 1999 to 2014, researchers stratified roughly 144,000 nonsmoking youth (ages 9 to 21 years) by race and ethnicity to evaluate trends in susceptibility disparities. Susceptibility was defined by a positive answer to at least one of three questions: (1) “Do you think you will try a cigarette soon?” (2) “Do you think you will smoke a cigarette in the next year?” (3) “If one of your friends were to offer you a cigarette, would you smoke …