Smoking Experimentation, Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity, and Associated Psychosocial and Demographic Correlates among Mexican Origin Youth.

Anna Wilkinson,Melissa Stigler,Nnenna Okeke,Margaret Spitz

doi:10.6000/ijipem/2014/1

Abstract

Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) may deter adolescents from smoking initiation and psychosocial risk and protective factors associated with both physical activity and smoking experimentation may play a role. This paper examines such psychosocial factors across four groups of adolescents identified by crossing smoking experimentation (yes/no) with completion of regular MVPA (yes/no). In 2008-09, 1,098 Mexican origin youth (553 girls and 546 boys, mean age 14.3 years [SD=1.04]) provided data on smoking behavior, physical activity, alcohol use, acculturation, peer and parental smoking, BMI, body image, smoking outcome expectations, anxiety, subjective social status (SSS), body image, and sensation-seeking tendencies. We conducted Pearson's χ2 tests to examine associations between a) MVPA and smoking and b) demographic variables and the four groups identified by crossing smoking experimentation with MVPA. Next, adjusting for age and gender, we completed analysis of covariance to examine differences in psychosocial factors across the four groups. In our sample, 22.4% had experimented with cigarettes, and 29.3% completed adequate MVPA. Both behaviors were more prevalent among boys. Although not statistically significantly higher, 32.9% of experimenters completed adequate MVPA compared to 28.3% among non-experimenters. Experimenters who complete adequate MVPA reported the highest levels of thrill and adventure seeking, while those who completed inadequate MVPA reported lower SSS and more body image concerns than non-experimenters (p<0.05 for all). Our findings highlight an opportunity to address MVPA as an alternative to smoking among Mexican origin youth with high thrill and adventure sensation-seeking tendencies, 82% of whom have experimented and 69% of whom completed MVPA.

Highlights

The risk of smoking initiation is highest during adolescence [1,2]
The current analyses are based on 1,098 participants, or 95% of the 1,154 participants who provided data at follow-up in 2008-09, Table 1: Psychosocial and Behavioral Traits Examined in Relation to Smoking Experimentation and Regular Completion of Moderate-to-Vigorous Physical Activity
This study examined differences in smoking and physical activity-related psychosocial factors among four groups of Mexican origin adolescents stratified by combined physical activity and smoking-experimenter status

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The risk of smoking initiation is highest during adolescence [1,2]. It is a time when patterns of physical activity are likely to change, becoming less frequent than in pre-adolescence [3]. Our previous research on Mexican origin youth suggests similar motivations for smoking [9 -11] Those who experiment with cigarettes are likely to exhibit sensation-seeking tendencies, higher anxiety, worse body image, and lower subjective social status (SSS) [9 -11]. Hispanic youth in Texas, of whom Mexicans represent the majority, report higher rates of cigarette experimentation and lower rates of adequate physical activity compared to youth of other ethnic backgrounds [19]. For these reasons, studying smoking behavior and physical activity in this population with the goal of preventing smoking initiation, is timely and warranted. In this paper we examine psychosocial differences among four groups of Mexican origin adolescents: physically active cigarette experimenters, physically active nonexperimenters, non-physically active cigarette experimenters, and non-physically active nonexperimenters in order to identify characteristics of youth most and least at risk for tobacco use

Study Design

RESULTS

DISCUSSION