Elsevier

Addictive Behaviors

Volume 36, Issues 1–2, January–February 2011, Pages 133-136
Addictive Behaviors

Short Communication
Peer, parent and media influences on adolescent smoking by developmental stage

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2010.08.018Get rights and content

Abstract

Previous studies of social influences on adolescent smoking have focused on peers and parents, using data collected prior the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement. This study used the 2004 wave of the National Youth Tobacco Survey to examine associations between peer smoking, smoking at home, tobacco-related media exposure, and smoking behavior during early and middle adolescence. Findings indicate that peer smoking and smoking at home remain strongly associated with current smoking among early and middle adolescents, controlling for gender, race/ethnicity and exposure to tobacco industry and anti-tobacco media. The magnitude of the association between peer smoking and current smoking decreases from early adolescence to middle adolescence while the association between smoking at home and current smoking is static across developmental stage. Exposure to tobacco-related media is associated with increased current and former smoking in both early and middle adolescence.

Research Highlights

► The influence of peer smoking on current smoking decreases across adolescence. ► The influence of smoking at home on current smoking is static across adolescence. ► Exposure to tobacco-related media is associated with increased adolescent smoking.

Introduction

Approximately 80% of tobacco use begins in adolescence (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2007), a developmental stage encompassing physical, psychological, and cognitive growth in the transition from childhood to adulthood (Smetana, Campione-Barr, & Metzger, 2006). National studies (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2006, Marshall et al., 2006) identify salient periods of tobacco use in early adolescence (ages 10 to 13) and middle adolescence (ages 14 to 17) which map to the social contexts of middle school and high school.

Primary socialization theory posits that adolescents learn normative and deviant behavior from three main sources: family, school, and peers (Oetting & Donnermeyer, 1998). Peer influence is a consistent predictor of smoking onset among adolescents (Abroms et al., 2005, Bauman and Ennett, 1996, Chassin et al., 1984b, Conrad et al., 1992, Simons-Morton et al., 2004) and smoking initiation among adolescents has been described as a “prevalence-driven” behavior (Rowe, Chassin, Presson, Edwards, & Sherman, 1992) whereby an adolescent's perception of smoking prevalence among his or her friends is more highly correlated with his or her own smoking than the actual prevalence of smoking (Bauman & Ennett, 1996). Studies indicate that parental influence remains important while peer influence on smoking appears to increase during adolescence (Bauman et al., 2001, Chassin et al., 1986, Chassin et al., 1984a). Few studies address the influence of schools on adolescent smoking (Kobus, 2003), though school bonding and success or failure in school may affect the selection of peer groups and their influence on smoking behavior (Kelly & Donohew, 1999).

Media can also serve as an important normative influence on adolescent behavior (Arnett, 1995, Kelly and Donohew, 1999, Wakefield et al., 2003). Tobacco advertising and smoking in movies, magazines and other media increase positive attitudes about smoking, intention to smoke, and smoking initiation among youth (Sargent et al., 2005, Wakefield et al., 2003, Wellman et al., 2006). Anti-tobacco media efforts have also been shown to be effective in reducing smoking among adolescents, specifically younger adolescents (Farrelly et al., 2002, Farrelly et al., 2003, Wakefield et al., 2003).

Currently, there are few studies of the magnitude of normative influences on smoking across adolescent age or developmental stage (Bauman et al., 2001, Chassin et al., 1986, Krosnick and Judd, 1982, Wang et al., 1995). Cross-sectional studies have found that peer influence on adolescent smoking increases across age while parent influence remains constant (Chassin et al., 1986, Krosnick and Judd, 1982). Longitudinal studies report no significant change in the magnitude of peer and parental influence on smoking behavior across grade or age (Bauman et al., 2001, Chassin et al., 1986). These studies do not directly address the developmental periods that distinguish adolescent research (Smetana et al., 2006) which may map better to changes in adolescent socialization (Oetting, 1999). In addition, they fail to control for the normative influence of media and rely on data collected prior to the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA), which restricted tobacco industry marketing to American youth (Daynard, Parmet, Kelder, & Davidson, 2001).

This study uses data from the 2004 National Youth Tobacco Survey (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2004) to estimate associations between peer smoking, smoking at home, exposure to tobacco-related media and current and former smoking behavior in early adolescence and middle adolescence.

Section snippets

Methods

The National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) is a self-administered survey of U.S. middle and high school students in the fifty states and the District of Columbia that provides estimates of current tobacco use among youth; the survey design, sampling, and results from the 2004 NYTS have been described elsewhere (Bloch et al., 2005). The 2004 wave of the NYTS was conducted at 267 schools in the spring semester of 2004 with a response rate of 88%; the full survey sample included 27,933 respondents

Results

Among early adolescents (aged 10–13 years), the prevalence of current smoking was 6.0% (95% CI: 5.1%–7.0%) compared to 18.8% (95% CI: 16.9%–20.9%) among middle adolescents (aged 14–17 years). The prevalence of former smoking among early adolescents was 12.2% (95% CI: 10.9%–13.5%) and 24.9% (95% CI: 23.6%–26.3%) among middle adolescents.

Controlling for demographic variables and other normative influences, the relative risk ratio of the association of peer smoking with current smoking compared to

Discussion

Our findings indicate that the magnitude of the association between peer smoking and current smoking decreases from early adolescence to middle adolescence, controlling for demographics, smoking at home and exposure to tobacco-related and anti-tobacco media. The association between smoking at home and current smoking is static across developmental stage. The results support previous findings (Bauman et al., 2001, Chassin et al., 1986, Krosnick and Judd, 1982) that the normative influence of

Role of Funding Sources

This research was unfunded and conducted as part of doctoral training. The authors do not have relevant sources of funding to declare.

Contributors

A. Villanti conceived of the study. M. Boulay and H-S. Juon guided the design and analysis. A. Villanti wrote the first draft of the manuscript and all authors contributed to and have approved the final manuscript.

Conflict of Interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Acknowledgements

This study was conducted as part of a doctoral training program. The authors would like to thank David Abrams, Thomas Kirchner, and Donna Vallone for their comments on previous drafts.

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