Perceived peer smoking prevalence and its association with smoking behaviours and intentions in Hong Kong Chinese adolescents

Abstract

Overestimation of peer smoking prevalence was common in Hong Kong Chinese boys and girls, and was associated with current and ever smoking in boys. These findings have important implications on normative education in adolescence smoking prevention programmes.

Social judgments of behavioral versus substance-related addictions: A population-based study

“…These studies consistently show that greater stigmatization and larger social distance are associated with substance-related addictions compared to other physical or mental diseases (Deng, Li, Sringernyuang, & Zhang, 2007;Link, Phelan, Bresnahan, Stueve, & Pescosolido, 1999;Livingston, Milne, Fang, & Amari, 2012;Lloyd, 2013;Pescosolido et al, 2010). Other investigations have focused on core contents of public opinion concerning addictions such as perceived prevalence or perceived etiology (Adlaf, Hamilton, Wu, & Noh, 2009;Furnham & Lowick, 1984;Gagnon, Côté, April, Julien, & Tessier, 2013;Jackson, 1997;Konkolÿ Thege et al, in press;Lai, Ho, & Lam, 2004;Neighbors, Geisner, & Lee, 2008). The results of these studies suggest that substance-related addictions are often viewed by the general public as acts of personal choice and/or moral failure, and less likely to be considered as medical conditions (cf.…”

Family structure, parent-child conversation time and substance use among Chinese adolescents

“…Little is known about the associations in populations such as Asians where both non-intact families and substance use are relatively low. Apart from the differences in culture and parenting style [27-31], different perceived norms of family structure and substance use [32,33] may also affect the association between family structure and substance use. While the prevalence of substance use is similar between Western males and females, it is much less common in Asian women than men [34,35], which may contribute to paternal-maternal family differences in adolescent substance use.…”

Lifestyle and Addictive Behaviors Among Chinese Adolescents in Hong Kong, Macau, Taipei, Wuhan, and Zhuhai—a First Cross-subculture Assessment

“…All students were wellinformed that participation in the survey is absolutely voluntary, and they were offered rights not to participate and to quit during any time of the survey. Similar consenting practice has been widely used in other local surveys [24,28,[37][38][39].…”

“…Substantial research documented differences in dietary, substance use, and problem behaviors among Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong [24,25], Taipei [26][27][28][29], Macau [30], and the mainland China [31][32][33][34]. To the best of our knowledge, no prior research has simultaneously compared lifestyle and addictive behaviors of adolescents in these geographic areas with different cultural history and varying levels of socioeconomic development.…”