title: The Association Between School Bonding and Smoking Amongst Chilean Adolescents.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The objective of the research was to study the association between school bonding dimensions (school commitment and school attachment) and current adolescent smoking in Chile, controlling for confounding variables using the fifth Chilean School Population National Substance Use Survey, 2003 (CHSS-2003) data set.
  
  
  METHODS
  The CHSS-2003 is a stratified cross-sectional survey that gathers information about personal, familial, peer, and school factors and cigarette use using a self-reported questionnaire. Complete data from 21,956 adolescent students for all the variables of interest were used in the analyses. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed in order to explore the construct validity of the questionnaire and create the main exposure and potential confounding variables. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were undertaken to study the association between school bonding and smoking.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The construct validity of the school attachment and school commitment scales was mainly supported by the EFA. Multivariable analyses showed strong evidence that, after adjusting for factors from different domains, school commitment (student's good grades and school attendance) appears to have a clear inverse association with current smoking (odds ratio [OR]=0.46, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.38-0.56). On the other hand, school attachment (their feelings towards their school and their teachers) was not associated with adolescent smoking (OR=1.16, 95% CI: 0.88-1.53).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  School commitment was strongly associated with current smoking. It is important to further study this variable with the aim of ascertaining whether or not interventions that improve school commitment may prevent or reduce smoking amongst adolescent students.
authors: a School of Psychology , Universidad de los Andes , Santiago , Chile.
authors: Jorge
authors: J
authors: Gaete
authors: b Nottingham Clinical Trials Unit , University of Nottingham , Nottingham , United Kingdom.|c School of Social and Community Medicine , University of Bristol , Bristol , United Kingdom.
authors: Alan
authors: A
authors: Montgomery
authors: d Department of Epidemiology and Population Health , London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine , London, United Kingdom.
authors: Ricardo
authors: R
authors: Araya
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002677:Chile / Q000453:epidemiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009769:Object Attachment; D010379:Peer Group; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Smoking; adolescents; school attachment; school bonding; school commitment