title: Latino/a Youth Intentions to Smoke Cigarettes: Exploring the Roles of Culture and Gender.
abstract: Latino/a youth are at risk for cigarette smoking. This risk seems to increase as youth navigate the U.S. cultural context, especially for girls. To investigate how acculturation may influence Latino/a youths' intentions to use cigarettes, this study combines a bidimensional/multidomain model of acculturation and the Theory of Reasoned Action. Our sample consisted of 303 recent Latino/a immigrant youth who had resided in the United States for five years or less at baseline (141 girls, 160 boys; 153 from Miami, 150 from Los Angeles) who completed surveys at 3 time-points. Youth completed measures of acculturation (Latino/a practices, Latino/a identity, collectivistic values; U.S. cultural practices, U.S. identity, individualistic values), smoking related health risk attitudes, perceived subjective norms regarding smoking, and intentions to use cigarettes. Structural equation modeling indicated that collectivistic values were associated with more perceived disapproval of smoking, which in turn was negatively associated with intentions to smoke. Collectivistic values may help protect Latino/a immigrant youth from intending to smoke. Thus, educational smoking prevention efforts could promote collectivistic values and disseminate messages about the negative consequences of smoking on interpersonal relationships.
authors.affiliation: University of South Carolina.
authors.forename: Elma I
authors.initials: EI
authors.lastname: Lorenzo-Blanco
authors.affiliation: University of Miami.
authors.forename: Seth J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Schwartz
authors.affiliation: University of Southern California.
authors.forename: Jennifer B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Unger
authors.affiliation: Smith College.
authors.forename: Byron L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Zamboanga
authors.affiliation: Barry University.
authors.forename: Sabrina E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Des Rosiers
authors.affiliation: University of Miami.
authors.forename: Shi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Northwestern University.
authors.forename: Juan A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Villamar
authors.affiliation: University of Southern California.
authors.forename: Daniel W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Soto
authors.affiliation: University of Southern California.
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pattarroyo
authors.affiliation: University of Southern California.
authors.forename: Lourdes
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Baezconde-Garbanati
keywords: Cigarette use intentions; Cultura; Culture; Gender; Género; Intenciones del uso de cigarro; Latino/a youth; juventud latina