title: The influence of social environment and social image on adolescent smoking.
abstract: This purpose of this article is to explore differences by gender and school grade in patterns of association among social influences and tobacco use. Data from the 1999 (N = 15,038) and 2000 (N = 35,828) National Youth Tobacco Survey (American Legacy Foundation, 1999, 2000), a nationally representative, repeated cross-sectional survey, were used in the analysis. The authors compared effects on adolescent smoking. Direct paths from social environment to current smoking increased from middle school to high school. Indirect paths with social image mediating this relationship revealed a smaller increase. The pattern was constant across subsamples. Social image of smokers mediated the influence of social environment on adolescent smoking. Social image had a greater effect on smoking among middle school boys and high school girls.
authors.affiliation: RTI International, Washington, DC 20036-3209, USA. devans@rti.org
authors.forename: W Douglas
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Powers
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hersey
authors.forename: Jeanette
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Renaud
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012907:Smoking / Q000523:psychology*; D012931:Social Environment; D012933:Social Identification; D014481:United States