Abstract
Understanding the factors that influence cigarette smoking among adolescents is critical. We identified personal, community, and environmental factors associated with current cigarette smoking among adolescents. This population-based cross-sectional analysis study was conducted using the 2012 Taiwan Global Youth Tobacco Survey and the sociodemographic statistics of the city or county from Taiwan’s Ministry of the Interior. A total of 27,524 participants (age: 12–18-years) was included. The associated factors were identified through logistic regression. A path analysis was performed to examine the pathway from the associated factors to current cigarette smoking. According to this analysis, the following factors were prominently and positively associated with adolescent cigarette smoking: one personal factor (pocket money), five environmental factors (home secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure, smoker friends, outside SHS exposure, school SHS exposure, and smoker parents), and two community factors (free cigarettes from tobacco companies and indigenous population). By contrast, five personal factors (feeling less comfortable smoking at social occasions, feeling indifferent about smoking or not smoking at social occasions, female sex, feeling that quitting is difficult, and feeling that quitting after having smoked is harmful to health) and one environmental factor (school antismoking education) had negative effects. Thus, comprehensive interventions promoting the perception of harm caused by smoking and interrupting access to cigarettes through social networks can reduce cigarette smoking in adolescents.
Highlights
Since the recognition of cigarette smoking as the leading cause of preventable disease and death [1], its prevalence has progressively declined in Taiwanese adolescents [2].The implementation of the Anti-Smoking Act may have limited results for modern teens due to the increased availability of alternative tobacco products and advertising targeted at teenagers [3]
This study identifies personal, community, and environmental factors associated with and influencing current cigarette smoking among adolescents by constructing relevant pathways
The odds of current cigarette smoking were significantly positively related to personal factors, including pocket money (>NT$4500: Odds ratios (ORs) 4.21, 95% confidence intervals (CIs) 3.43–5.18, p < 0.001)
Summary
Since the recognition of cigarette smoking as the leading cause of preventable disease and death [1], its prevalence has progressively declined in Taiwanese adolescents [2].The implementation of the Anti-Smoking Act may have limited results for modern teens due to the increased availability of alternative tobacco products (such as e-cigarettes) and advertising targeted at teenagers [3]. Since the recognition of cigarette smoking as the leading cause of preventable disease and death [1], its prevalence has progressively declined in Taiwanese adolescents [2]. Understanding the factors that influence adolescent cigarette smoking in adolescents is crucial. Research has highlighted the importance of multilevel influential factors for determining health behaviors in adolescents [7,8]. According to the socioecological developmental model [9] and social cognitive theory [10], smoking behavior is a result of interactions among multilevel factors (i.e., personal, community, and environmental) [8,11,12]. Focusing on these multilevel factors is critical to the success of antismoking efforts in adolescents
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
