SMOKING HABIT AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS IN ADOLESCENT FEMALE STUDENTS

The authors administered a package containing some smoking-related que stions and a psychiatric inventory, the Symptom Checklist (SCL-90), to 564 young women students (14-17 years old) to obtain information on t he strength of the association between smoking and psychological distr ess in women smokers. Somatization, anxiety, hostility, and paranoid i deation scores were higher in teenage women smokers than in nonsmokers . Smokers generally have higher levels of minor psychiatric disturbanc e, but the data show that these symptoms are already present among you ng women at the start of their smoking careers.