Mobile Phone Use does not Discourage Adolescent Smoking in Japan

Abstract

Objective: The possibility that smoking prevalence among junior and senior high school students may decrease with increasing mobile phone bill was reported by the mass media in Japan. We conducted a nationwide survey on adolescent smoking and mobile phone use in Japan in order to assess the hypothesis that mobile phone use has replaced smoking. Methods: A total of 70 junior high schools (response rate; 71%), and 69 high schools (90%) from all over Japan responded to 2005 survey. Students in the responding schools were asked to fill out an anonymous questionnaire about smoking behavior, mobile phone bill, and pocket money. Questionnaires were collected from 32,615 junior high school students and 48,707 senior high school students.Results: The smoking prevalence of students with high mobile phone bill was more likely to be high, and that of students who used mobile phones costing 10,000 yen and over per month was especially high. When "quitters" were defined as students who had tried smoking but were not smoking at the time of survey, the proportion of quitters decreased as the mobile phone bill increased. The proportion of students who had smoking friends increased with the increase in the mobile phone bill per month. Conclusion: The hypothesis that the decrease in smoking prevalence among Japanese adolescents that has been observed in recent years is due to a mobile phone use can be rejected.

Frequent electronic media communication with friends is associated with higher adolescent substance use

“…EMC explained unique substance use variance over and beyond FTF interactions and average classroom substance use. These findings are consistent with previous research positively linking EMC to adolescent substance use (e.g., Leena et al 2005;Ohannessian 2009;Osaki et al 2012). Further, EMC strengthened the positive associations of FTF interactions after school with tobacco use, FTF interactions in the evening with tobacco and cannabis use, and average classroom alcohol use with individual alcohol use.…”

“…First, due to the cross-sectional and correlational design, no causal inferences can be made. It may be that adolescents who are already at risk for substance use are also at risk for higher levels of EMC (Leena et al 2005;Osaki et al 2012), or it may be that adolescents with high levels of substance use are more drawn to EMC because their substance use enhances their social connectedness and standing among peers (Killeya-Jones et al 2007). Further, it may be that adolescents specifically select peers who already have similar levels of substance use to communicate with via EMC (Stoddard et al 2012).…”

“…For example, more frequent mobile phone use and text messaging, e-mailing, and instant messaging have been associated with earlier and heavier substance use among adolescents in different countries (e.g., Leena et al 2005;Ohannessian 2009;Osaki et al 2012). Related to this, the amount of screen-based media (SBM) use was consistently and positively correlated with tobacco use, alcohol use, and getting drunk across 10 countries in Europe and North America (e.g., Iannotti et al 2009a, b;Nelson and Gordon-Larsen 2006).…”

The decline in adolescent substance use across Europe and North America in the early twenty-first century: A result of the digital revolution?

“…First, due to the repeated cross-sectional design, no causal inferences can be made. Adolescents who are at risk of substance use may also be at risk of higher levels of EMC (Osaki et al 2012 ), or adolescents who use substances use may be more drawn to EMC because their substance use enhances their social connectedness and standing among peers (Killeya-Jones et al 2007 ). Second, although we included an important set of social and individual factors in our models and showed that they contributed to substance use independently, a more elaborate model of substance use should also include biological, genetic and personality factors, as well as their interactions.…”

Determinants of High-School Dropout: A Longitudinal Study in a Deprived Area of Japan

“…The earlier people start smoking (eg, early teenage), the greater the harm. Although the smoking rates of junior-high-school students have been rapidly declining in Japan in the past 20 years, 29 we need to prevent smoking in junior high school. In the USA 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the prevalence of current cigarette smoking was 10.2% among ninth graders.…”