Abstract
Background: An adolescent’s perceptions of their family’s and friends’ smoking attitudes and behaviour can
influence their own uptake of smoking. There are two broad sources of such social influence: observing the behaviour
directly, and assimilating attitudes.
Methods: We analysed data collected for the evaluation of Dead Cool, a school based smoking prevention
intervention in Northern Ireland (n = 480 in 20 clusters). The main analysis fits three nested logistic regression models
predicting pre-intervention susceptibility to taking up smoking, as reflected in responses to three attitudinal
questions. Model 1 includes only personal characteristics as explanatory factors. Model 2 adds the behaviour of friends
and family that would provide an opportunity for social influence through observational learning. Model 3 adds the
susceptibility of friends.
Results: Each additional group of variables improved the model fit (with reduced AIC and BIC). However, in the final
model, only three variables were found to be statistically significant (p < 0.05) in predicting susceptibility to smoking
initiation: rebelliousness (OR [ 1.1, 1.3]) from the personal characteristics group; and, in the observational learning
group, being friends with a smoker (OR [ 1.0, 2.9]) and frequency of being in the same room or car with someone
smoking (OR [ 2.0, 9.0] for most frequent). Adding the two measures of diffusion of susceptibility through the
friendship network improved the model fit, but neither was found to be statistically significant.
Conclusions: The analysis provides additional evidence to support policies that could reduce children’s exposure to
smoking behaviour, and potential subsequent smoking initiation. No conclusions could be drawn about the diffusion
of smoking attitudes through the school friendship networks of children.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 1182 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | BMC Public Health |
Volume | 19 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 28 Aug 2019 |
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Allen Thurston
- School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work - Professor/Director of Centre for Effective Education
- Centre for Inclusion, Transformation and Equality (CITE)
Person: Academic