And teens
who smoke on a weekly or monthly basis are more likely to think that
adults don’t care or disapprove of adolescent smoking, say Marla
E. Eisenberg, Sc.D., M.P.H., and Jean L. Forster, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the University
of Minnesota.
Although the study does not link these factors as causes
of teen smoking, the researchers say that these perceptions and attitudes
may influence adolescents’ ideas
of what’s normal even more than factors such as a teen’s estimate
of how common smoking is among his or her peers.
“The presence or absence of young people smoking in a variety of settings
can send a powerful message about appropriate and expected behavior for adolescents,” they
write in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Cigarette smoking among teens has been on the decline over
the last decade, but “it remains a common behavior in this age group and a considerable
threat to public health,” Eisenberg says.
Eisenberg and Forster examined smoking attitudes among 3,128 girls and 3,146
boys in grades eight through 10 from rural Minnesota schools. Seventy-three
percent of those surveyed said they had not smoked at all in the previous 30
days, but almost 15 percent said they smoked daily. Almost three-quarters of
the students said that they had a friend who smoked, while up to a third had
at least one parent who smoked.
Nonsmokers in the group had the most “anti-smoking” vision
among the students, the researchers found. Nonsmokers were least likely
to notice
smoking by their peers and most likely to say that adults disapproved of
teen smoking, for instance. Among teens who smoked, however, these views
varied
with how often the students reported smoking.
“For example, 55 percent of nonsmokers felt that adults disapprove of
teen smoking compared to 44 percent of past-month smokers, 36 percent of past-week
smokers and 31 percent of daily smokers,” Eisenberg says.
The researchers acknowledge that their findings may not apply to different
racial or ethnic groups or youth living in urban settings.
