Race, Grade Level, and Cigarette Smoking: The 1999 National Youth Tobacco Survey

Two considerations must be kept in mind when interpreting these results. First, the data are cross-sectional. Thus, when the younger adolescents grow older, they may not show the same race differences in smoking that are currently observed among older youth. Second, information on socioeconomic status (SES) was not available. However, it is unlikely that race differences in SES would have explained away the race gap in teen smoking.