Personality or Family:
What Predicts Youth Tobacco
Use?
Personality and Risk Behavior
• There are associations between early
adolescents’ personality and important
health outcomes: Psychological adjustment,
coping strategies, risk behaviors
(substance abuse, delinquency)
• Personality traits in middle childhood are
predictive of likelihood of risk behaviors in
adolescence and adulthood
• Depressive symptoms have been associated
with adolescent smoking
The Five Factor
Model of Personality
1. Extraversion
2. Agreeableness
3. Conscientiousness
Active, energetic,
excitement seeking
Kind, trusting
Organized, responsible
4. Neuroticism
Anxiety prone, unstable
5. Openness
Curious, Experimental
Costa and McCrae, 1996
Risk and Personality
Extraversion and
Openness
Positive correlation
with risk behavior
Agreeableness and
conscientiousness
Inversely correlated
with risk behavior
Family, Home Environment and Risk
• Supportive family
environments reduce
the risk of health
problems among
adolescents
• Preadolescents and
adolescents with
positive parental
socialization have less
problem behavior,
substance use and
delinquency
Parental Monitoring
and Risk Behavior
Monitoring refers to:
• Parents’ knowledge of children’s whereabouts
• Parents’ awareness of Children’s activities
• Parents’ acquaintance with children’s friends
• Children with low levels of parental monitoring
are more likely to engage in risk behavior
• Children with high levels of parental
monitoring are more likely to engage in health
promoting behavior
The Cultivation of a Smoker
Living with a smoker in the family, especially a mother, greatly
increases the chances a child will plan to smoke when they get bigger
Family Influence
• Children as young as three and four years old think
smoking is “cool” if their parents do it, and plan to
smoke themselves when they grow up
• Maternal smoking was associated with an 85% risk of
the child being a smoker
• Children from parents with less than a high school
diploma are more likely to be smokers
• Adolescents from families earning less than $20,000
annually are 30% more likely to smoke than those
earning $20,001 to $30,000
Soteriades & DiFranzia, 2003
♂
vs.
♀
Tobacco Use and Gender
• Male high school students are significantly more
likely to use smokeless tobacco than female
(10.8 vs. 1.4)
• Cigars are the second most prevalent type of tobacco
used in high school. 16.9 % of males had used cigars
compared to 6.2 % of females
• Male middle school students are more likely to use all
types of tobacco, except cigarettes
• 6. Girls express stronger intentions to smoke than
boys
Centers for Disease Control, 2002
Why do Adolescent Girls Smoke?
The Story of One Smoker
Andrea Foster has tried to butt out three or four
times, but keeps going back to what is now her
king-size, half-pack-a-day habit. Foster quit smoking
while on summer vacation last year, but succumbed
when she got back home and saw friends who still lit
up. Last month, she cut back to one or two cigarettes
a day, but then things at home hit a rough patch. She
craved the calming effect of the smoke penetrating
deep into her lungs. "Smoking cigarettes for me is
really relaxing," says Foster. Sure, she knows that
smoking kills -- who doesn't? "You think about it," she
says of the health risk, "and it affects you, but I love
smoking so much." Foster is 15 years old. She started
when she was 13.
Why are Girls smoking more
these days?
• While the anti-smoking message spreads,
there are many explanations why it seems less
effective on young women.
• They may be more inclined than males their
age to respond to the tobacco industry Ads
• As more young women find jobs, they're no
longer as sensitive to higher cigarette prices
as they once were.
Smoking and Cultural Norms
• Smoking contributes to a young
woman's identity formation
• Young women use it as a way to
resist dominant culture and
domination, and as a way to look like
rebels.
• Smoking can also be an indicator of
other risk behavior.
• Girls who smoke are more likely to
be sexually active and drink;
they're more likely to do a whole
lot of things that are not 'boring'
in the teen subculture.
Winston ‘No Bull’ Campaign. “Yeah, I have a
tattoo and no you can’t see it.
The Reasons Girls Smoke
1. To make friends and engage in social relationships
2. To rebel against parents, school, society and authority
3. To address stress (girls report higher levels of stress
than boys)
4. To lose weight-body image to girls in developing
countries is very important
5. Around age 10 girls feel less control over their lives and
their destinies.
6. Girls raised in this generation expect equality and equal
opportunity, but by age 14 and 15 may be disillusioned
and pessimistic. They Choose cigarettes as a form of
control.
Women and Smoking:
A Brief History of Targeted Marketing
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
WWI- Smoking is Patriotic and masculine. Elegant for men, but immoral
for women
Late 1920’s – smoking is a sign of liberation and rebellion for women
1930s – women who smoke are glamorous and sophisticated
1940s- cigarettes promoted as a sexual prop for both sexes
1950s - Evidence of the harmful effects of smoking became availablecigarette advertising becomes associated with health activities like
skiing and cycling
1970s and 1980s – advertising shows groups of women socializing,
laughing, having fun
Late 1980s- Advertising to women focuses on stress relief/take a
break
1990s/2000s - Marketing is dominated by themes of an association
between social desirability, independence
- Smoking messages conveyed through advertisements featuring slim,
attractive, and athletic models.
- Advertising is used in part to reduce women's fear of the health
risks from smoking by presenting information on nicotine and tar
content or by using positive images ( models engaged in exercise or
pictures of natural beauty in the background)
Young Women and the Psychological
Impact of Tobacco
• The issue of identity formation is important. It has
been hypothesized that there are gender specific
issues involved when young women start to perceive
cigarettes as part of their identity. They may feel in
control when smoking, but they also feel controlled.
• Young women receive mixed messages in the movies,
women’s magazines and advertising.
• Young women often use women’s magazines as a
source of health information, however, these
publications rarely have articles on the negative
effects of smoking.
Women and Nicotine Addiction
• Quitting is more difficult for women
than men. At all ages, women tend to be
more sensitive to nicotine and require
less of a dose to become addicted.
• Women are more prone to depression
after they quit, and are likely to report
a greater number of -- and more severe
-- withdrawal symptoms.