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Risk-Taking and Smoking Tendency Among Primarily African American School Children: Moderating Influences of Peer Susceptibility

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Abstract

We examined the hypothesis that peer susceptibility would moderate the association between risk-taking and tendency to smoke in adolescents who were primarily African American. Participants were 88 preadolescents recruited from a 6th grade classroom in a public elementary school. We found an interaction of risk-taking and susceptibility to peer influence on smoking tendency. Specifically, a moderator effect was found for peer influence on the association between risk-taking and smoking tendency. The importance of examining peer susceptibility on health promotion and other health behaviors in children and adolescents was supported.

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Fuemmeler, B.F., Taylor, L.A.(., Metz, A.E. et al. Risk-Taking and Smoking Tendency Among Primarily African American School Children: Moderating Influences of Peer Susceptibility. Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings 9, 323–330 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020743102967

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