PILOT STUDY--BEHAVIORAL GENETICS STUDY OF ADOLESCENT SMOKERS

关于吸烟的研究主要集中在成年人身上，但大多数人是从青春期开始吸烟的。然而，针对青少年吸烟的研究相对较少，试图确定导致吸烟开始和持续的遗传和环境因素的工作就更少了。目前的建议的目的是检查吸烟的发展在一个大样本的双胞胎代表的青少年时期的发展。明尼苏达州双胞胎家庭研究（MTFS）是一项对1971年至1981年间出生在明尼苏达州的1300对双胞胎及其家庭的纵向研究。我们的目标是应用现有的行为遗传学方法（Hannah, Hopper, & Mathews, 1985; Heath, 1990; Neals & Cardon, 1992）来检查成为依赖吸烟者的过程。本研究将应用现有的开始吸烟和持续吸烟的模型，检查哪些环境变量（例如，吸烟的同伴压力，香烟的可获得性）与开始吸烟最相关，并利用现有数据集对尼古丁依赖的进展进行建模。这些分析的结果将有助于哈里兰多博士的“青少年吸烟的可改变因素”研究中考虑的干预措施。

Studies of cigarette smoking have largely focused on adults, but the majority of smoking begins during adolescence. Nevertheless, comparatively little research has focused on adolescent smoking, and still less work has attempted to determine the genetic and environmental factors contributing to smoking initiation and persistence. The purpose of the current proposal is to examine the development of cigarette smoking in a large sample of twins representing the adolescent period of development. The Minnesota Twin Family Study (MTFS) is a longitudinal study of 1,300 twin pairs born in Minnesota between 1971 and 1981 and their families. Our goal is to apply existing behavior genetic methodology (Hannah, Hopper, & Mathews, 1985; Heath, 1990; Neals & Cardon, 1992) to examine the process of becoming a dependent smoker. The present study will apply existing models for smoking initiation and persistence, examine which environmental variables (e.g., peer pressure to smoke, availability of cigarettes) are most associated with smoking initiation, and model the progression to nicotine dependence with this existing data set. The results of these analyses will help inform the interventions that will be considered for Dr. Harry Lando's "Modifiable Factors in Adolescent Smoking" studies.