Abstract

This research was in part done while the author worked at International Bank of Research and Development. This Research was supported by grants given to the author from U. S. Department of Education, the U. S. National Science Foundation, the U.S. National Center for Educational Statistics, and the American Educational Research Association under Grant #RED-9452861. Opinions reflect those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the affiliated institutions. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the annual conference of American Educational Research Association, April16-19, 1999, Western Psychological Association, April 29-May 2, and American Society of Addiction Medicine, November 7-9, 1998. In this paper adolescent smoking behavior is investigated with the latent growth curve methodology, which have been proposed to adequately depict change or growth. The approach was used for the estimation of growth profiles represented by the parameters of initial status and the rate of growth. A longitudinal data set obtained from a smoking behavior prevention program for adolescents was used in this study. Hypotheses concerning the form of growth in adolescent cigarette use, individual differences in the trajectory over time, and background variables influencing growth were tested. The analyses demonstrated that the quadratic growth curve was appropriate for modeling developmental process of adolescent smoking behavior. The schools that implemented the health education program showed a smaller rate of increase in smoking behavior.