Objectives: This study was performed to find the association between smoking experiences and psychological factors such as depression and self-esteem in middle school students. Methods: The data were collected by self-administered questionnaires from 1,995 students in 10 middle schools in a district of Gwangju, and analysed using chi-square test, t-test and multiple logistic regression analysis. Results: The rate of smoking experience was 29.6% for male and 14.5% for female students (p<0.05). Students who had ever smoked were more depressed and lower selfesteem than those who did not smoke. After adjustment for the effect of potential covariates, those students who depressed were more likely to have smoking experiences (aOR= 1.87, 95% CI=1.51~2.31), compared with who did not depressed. And those students in the highest 25% (4th quartile) of the self-esteem were less likely to have smoking experiences (aOR=0.61, 95% CI=0.38~0.87), compared with the lowest quartile group. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that psychological factors were associated with student smoking. There is therefore a need for school-based smoking prevention programs, which deal comprehensively with socio-demographic factors, environmental factors and psychological factors that influence smoking.