With over 3 million teens smoking cessation efforts have moved to the forefront of adolescent tobacco control. Experimentation and escalation of cigarette use occurs during adolescence; by age 18 71% of adults reported regular smoking. During the 1990s current cigarette smoking (>1 cigarette within the previous 30 days of the survey) in teens increased. After a peak of 36.4% in 1997 the rate declined to 21.9% (7.3%–32.7%) in 2003. Females have similar rates compared to males with 27.7% of high school senior girls reporting current smoking. Adolescents are interested in quitting but have difficulty; three quarters of adolescents make at least one serious attempt and fail. Reasons involve attaining personal utility (e.g. helping with anger sadness fitting in concentration) for cigarettes. This coupled with positive environmental reinforcements (e.g. peer sibling and family influence and exposure) often leads to continued use and addiction. Adolescents underestimate the addictive properties of nicotine; for example 44% of high school seniors who smoked daily believed they would not be smoking in 5 years. When followed 73% still were smoking daily. (excerpt)
