Tobacco Use - 2003 Monitoring the Future Survey (MTF)*
Despite the demonstrated health risk associated with smoking, young Americans continue to smoke. However, past-month smoking rates among high school students are declining from peaks reached in 1996 for 8th-graders (21.0 percent) and 10th-graders (30.4 percent) and in 1997 for seniors (36.5 percent). In 2003, rates reached the lowest levels ever reported by MTF; 10.2 percent of 8th-graders, 16.7 percent of 10th-graders, and 24.4 percent of high school seniors reported smoking during the month preceding their responses to the survey.
The decrease in smoking rates among young Americans corresponds to several years in which increased proportions of teens said they believe there is a “great” health risk associated with cigarette smoking and expressed disapproval of “pack-a-day” smokers. Students’ personal disapproval of smoking had risen for some years, but showed no further increase in 2003 among 8th-graders and only small increases among 10th- and 12th-graders. In 2003, 84.6 percent of 8th-graders, 81.4 percent of 10th-graders, and 74.8 percent of 12th-graders stated that they “disapprove” or “strongly disapprove” of people smoking one or more packs of cigarettes per day.
Notes
* These data are from the 2003 Monitoring the Future Survey, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, DHHS, and conducted by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. The survey has tracked 12th-graders’ illicit drug use and related attitudes since 1975; in 1991, 8th- and 10th-graders were added to the survey. The latest data are online at http://www.drugabuse.gov/.
-This text came from NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse)
