Emily McCaffrey
Emily McCaffrey is a senior studying Community Health. She is an SPH Heart Scholar, which is a program funded by the American Heart Association for undergraduate students to research cardiovascular health with a faculty sponsor. Emily has spent the past year working in the Elam Lab with Dr. Kit Elam. She hopes to become a physician’s assistant after graduation.
The Impact of Effortful Control and Tobacco Use in Adolescence on Cardiovascular Health in Adulthood
Background and Objective: Effortful control consists of working memory, flexible shifting, and inhibitory control which enables self-regulation in adolescence. Deficits in effortful control (EC) can potentially affect adult health outcomes. Tobacco use in adolescence has a negative impact on cardiovascular health in adulthood and is also highly related to peers’ tobacco use. However, these individual and social factors, and their interaction, have not been examined as predictors of cardiovascular health in adulthood.
Methods: Participants were from a longitudinal study on substance use (n = 570). Mothers reported adolescent’s EC and adolescents reported their own and peers’ tobacco use at age 16. At age 30, individuals reported on their chest pain. Chest pain was measured at a single time point so longitudinal associations were examined using a multiple regression which included EC, tobacco use, peer tobacco use, the interaction between EC and peer tobacco use, and covariates (age, gender, race/ethnicity) as predictors of chest pain in adulthood.
Results: Regression results (F (8,562) = 3.80, p < .001), indicated that EC (B = -.12, p = .007) and tobacco use (B = .11, p = .025) in adolescence were associated with chest pain in adulthood. Peer tobacco use and its interaction with EC were not associated with chest pain nor were covariates.
Conclusions: These findings confirm past research that tobacco use in adolescence is associated with later cardiovascular health. Conversely, greater executive control was associated with better cardiovascular health. This knowledge can help to inform adolescent health promotion programs.
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