Can smoking be a form of maladaptive coping?

Yes and no: kids start smoking for many reasons, but the same issues that go into other kinds of drug abuse (which is what smoking is - drug abuse) are present in those kids as well - lack of family rituals and often closeness, distant or absent fathers, and other forms of dysfunction are far more common in the families where teens start smoking than in those who don't. Later it is used to reduce anxiety etc