OBJECTIVETo understand the association between stressful life event and onset of smoking among adolescents in China.

METHODSData on baseline survey from a 5-year longitudinal smoking prevention trail was used. Five thousand, five hundred and thirty-six students, from grade 7, 8 and 9 in 22 junior high schools all over Wuhan, China, had completed the survey on the onset of smoking in the past year and on stressful life events. Logistic regression analysis was used.

RESULTSThe results showed that 8.2% of the respondents reported the onset of smoking in the past year before the survey. The rates for male and female were 13.6% and 3.4% respectively while 7.8% for 7th graders, 9.1% for 8th graders and 8.3% for 9th graders. When gender, urbanicity and age were controlled with logistic regression model, the onset of smoking in general was significantly positively associated with the negative life events at school and family while negatively associated with positive life events in school and personal domain (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONAttention should be paid to help adolescents to cope with stressful life events in order to prevent and control the onset of smoking among adolescents.