title: Actions speak louder than words: an experiment on the impact of peers discouraging young adult smoking.
abstract: This study investigates whether antismoking peer pressure and/or nonsmoking peers are protective factors and decrease young adults' likelihood to smoke. An experiment was conducted among 59 daily-smoking young adults aged 16-24 years. The experiment consisted of four conditions. During the session, the confederate and participant sat in a camper van and had to do a 30-min joint music task. The participants' smoking behavior was observed during this task. The results of Poisson log-linear analysis, controlling for participants' carbon monoxide level and gender, showed that young adults smoked fewer cigarettes in the presence of a nonsmoking model pressuring the young adult not to smoke compared to a heavy-smoking model not using any pressure. At the same time, the results of Fisher's exact test indicated that the total number of cigarettes smoked did not differ significantly for nonsmoking peers verbally pressuring the young adult not to smoke compared to nonsmoking peers not verbally pressuring the young adult. Our findings indicate that the protective effect of peer influence merely lies in that the peer does not smoke. Therefore, antismoking programs and policy should focus specifically on reducing exposure to smoking peers.
authors.affiliation: Interdisciplinary Social Science, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands. z.harakeh@uu.nl
authors.forename: Zeena
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Harakeh
authors.forename: Wilma A M
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Vollebergh
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D012907:Smoking / Q000523:psychology; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D012938:Social Perception; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult