Some 25 percent of U.S. high school students smoke, according to the National Institutes of Health. Approximately one-third of young smokers will continue the habit throughout adulthood and die of a smoking-related condition such as lung cancer or emphysema. Despite the potential health risks associated with smoking, a teenager may choose to pick up his first cigarette for a variety of reasons.
Advertising
Nearly 4,000 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 start smoking every day, reports the KidsHealth website, and tobacco advertisements may be at least partially responsible. Tobacco companies produce ads that depict cigarette smokers as exciting, sexy, attractive and living life to the fullest. Teens may find the image of a fun-loving lifestyle very appealing.
Parental Influence
Teens with parents who smoke may be inclined to follow in their footsteps. A study published in May 2010 in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health Report concluded adolescents living with mothers who smoke were almost three times more likely to start smoking than adolescents living with mothers who don't smoke.
In addition, adolescents living with mothers who have recently suffered a bout of major depression were nearly twice as likely to light up than kids who lived with mothers without mental health issues. When a mother was depressed and smoked, an adolescent was four times more likely to start smoking than a child living in a more stable, smoke-free environment.
Peer Pressure and Curiosity
The perception that "everyone's doing it" may lure some teens into become smokers. Friends may offer cigarettes and encourage a teen to light up and keep smoking. Curiosity may get the best of some teens who begin smoking just to find out what it feels like.
Rebellion
Smoking can cause a teen to feel rebellious and free of parental control. Lighting up a cigarette can feel grown up, exciting and even have an element of danger to it when a teen is breaking the rules and at least momentarily getting away with something of which his parents would not approve.
Weight Control
Some teens start smoking in an effort to manage their weight. A study published in October 1999 in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, found boys and girls alike think smoking may be an effective tool for weight control.
