MedscapeWire
School Environment and Lack of Knowledge Play Role in Teen Smoking
July 11, 2001
By Erin R. King
New York - Thousands of young people start smoking each year despite highly publicized health risks. One new study indicates that schools may hold some of the answers to this phenomenon, while another study suggests that what teens don't know about the addictive qualities and health risks of smoking could play a role, both published in the July issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health <
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Schools - the places where teens, their teachers, and administrators spend hours each day for most of the year - are unique microcommunities, explains study author Cheryl Alexander, PhD, a professor in the department of population and family health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland.
Understanding how smoking is viewed by a school community can go a long way toward learning how teens in that school choose to smoke or not to smoke, Alexander says. Her group looked at data from more than 2500 young people in grades 7 through 12 that took part in a nationwide teen health study.
Although one group of popular people making smoking seem "cool" can be a key influence, she says, the issue is more complex. Policies and - if smoking is banned - punishments regarding smoking in the building can also play a role, as well as whether teachers are allowed to smoke, Alexander says.
"Adolescents don't live in isolation," says Alexander. Their schools, parents, peer groups and local governments, who enforce laws that prevent minors from buying tobacco, all may play some role, she says.
Results of another survey suggest that some teens may also start smoking because they think it will be easier to quit than it really is.
The way teens decide whether to start smoking seems to involve a very different thought process than, say, the way they would choose to have a burger for lunch, explains the study's lead author Daniel Romer, PhD, research director with the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
"They're probably not understanding what the risks and benefits are," Romer says.
Romer's group looked at the results of a telephone survey of 600 US teens who were asked how much they know about the health risks of smoking as well as their smoking habits.
The teens' comments were in some ways contradictory, Romer points out. For instance, while 80% of the young people said that smoking was addictive, about 60% said it wasn't too hard to quit. Presumably this belief plays some role in the decision to start making tobacco use a habit, he says.
"They're trying smoking, saying, 'I'll figure that out later,'" he says. "It's a very tough habit to give up, and a lot of young people start it thinking they're not going to do it for long."
Most of the teens knew that smoking could lead to lung cancer, and the majority actually overestimated the risk, but a surprising number didn't think that many smokers died of smoking-related illness like lung cancer. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths for both men and women, and an estimated 156,900 people died of it last year.
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