%0 Journal Article %T Psychosocial factors associated with smoking and drinking among Japanese early adolescent boys and girls: Cross-sectional study %A Mikayo Ando %A Takashi Asakura %A Shinichiro Ando %A Bruce G Simons-Morton %J BioPsychoSocial Medicine %D 2007 %I BioMed Central %R 10.1186/1751-0759-1-13 %X Junior high school students from seventh to ninth grades (N = 2,923) completed a self-reported questionnaire between December 2002 and March 2003. Relationships between psychosocial variables (i.e., self-assertive efficacy to resist peer pressure, parental involvement, school adjustment, and deviant peer influence) and smoking and drinking were investigated using logistic regression analyses and path analyses.Smoking in the last six months was significantly more prevalent in boys (7.9%) than girls (5.1%). The prevalence of drinking in the last six months was similar in boys (23.7%) and girls (21.8%). Self-efficacy to resist peer pressure was negatively associated with both smoking and drinking among both boys and girls and provided both direct and indirect effects through deviant peer influence. Parental involvement showed indirect effects through school adjustment and/or deviant peer influence to both smoking among both boys and girls and drinking among girls, although parental involvement showed direct effects on smoking only for boys. School adjustment was negatively associated with smoking among both boys and girls and drinking among girls.These findings suggest that self-assertive efficacy to resist peer pressure, parental involvement, school adjustment and deviant peer influence are potentially important factors that could be addressed by programs to prevent smoking and/or drinking among early adolescent boys and girls in Japan.Adolescent smoking and drinking are serious national concerns in Japan [1]. Early experimentation with tobacco and alcohol is associated with both immediate and lasting threats to healthful youth development, including abuse and dependence, which can result in long-term health and social consequences [2].Among Japanese junior high school students, 58.2¨C76.0% reported having tried alcohol and 17.7¨C45.0% reported having tried tobacco [3-5]. Smoking (41.8%) and drinking (3.4%) have also been listed as causes for protective police custody o %U http://www.bpsmedicine.com/content/1/1/13