The outgoing, the rebellious and the anxious: are adolescent personality dimensions related to the uptake of smoking?

A longitudinal study examined relationships between future smoking and the personality traits of extraversion, psychoticism and neuroticism and self-esteem. At Time 1, when they were aged 11 to 18 years, 1400 twin pairs completed a questionnaire about their smoking behaviours and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. Three years later, current smoking status was assessed in 1114 twin pairs. Analyses conducted for the first member of the twin pair were replicated on the second member's data. Non-smokers and experimenters at Time 1 were identified and their smoking status at Time 2 assessed. In both samples non-smokers who three-years later had had some experience with smoking (either experimenters or recent users) had significantly higher scores on personality dimension of extraversion. No personality trait distinguished between experimenters who went on to become recent users of tobacco and those who did not.