What could keep young people away from alcohol and cigarettes? Findings from the UK Household Longitudinal Study

Abstract

BackgroundAdolescents are vulnerable to risky behaviours that are likely to co-occur. We examined whether happiness, awareness of alcohol- or smoking-related harm or the size of friendship networks would be longitudinally associated with young people’s risky behaviours.MethodsWe used available cases (N=1,729) from adolescents aged between 10 and 15 who participated in waves 2 and 3 of the UK Longitudinal Household Study that has annually collected population representative data from 40,000 UK households. The outcome variable was patterns of cigarette and alcohol use among adolescents (1= persistent non-use; 2= ex-use; 3= initiation; 4= persistent use) that we derived by tabulating current alcohol or cigarette use at waves 2 and 3. Explanatory variables were scores on participants’ perception of overall happiness, awareness of harm due to alcohol and cigarette use, and supportive friendship network size, collected at wave 2. Covariates were participants’ sex, age, base level of self-reported health status, reported religious affiliation, and household social position. All estimates were corrected for the complex survey design and non-response. Multinomial logistic regression was used to test assumed associations by taking persistent cigarette and alcohol use as the reference category.ResultsFindings showed higher happiness scores were longitudinally associated with adolescents’ persistent non-use (RRR=1.06, 95% CI=1.01-1.13). Awareness of alcohol or cigarette use-related harm was longitudinally associated with persistent non-use (RRR=1.24, 95% CI 1.15-1.35) as well as initiation of alcohol or cigarette use (RRR=1.21, 95% CI=1.11-1.32).ConclusionJoint interventions to promote happiness and harm awareness could help young adolescents from engaging with drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes.

Factors affecting cigarette smoking among adolescents in South Korea, Vietnam, and Thailand

“…In addition, exposure to antitobacco advertisements was the only preventative factor associated with cigarette smoking among South Korean adolescents. These results are comparable with those reported in a U.K. study (Cable et al, ), which showed that the primary factor associated with persistent non‐use of cigarette smoking among adolescents was awareness of cigarette‐related harm. In summary, interventions to educate students about the harm caused by cigarettes could help adolescents to keep away from cigarette smoking.…”

“…El‐Toukhy et al () showed that, in various ethnic groups (e.g., Asian, Hispanic, non‐Hispanic), younger adolescents (11–13 years of age) were more susceptible to smoking than older adolescents. During adolescence, peer networks and their influence have been identified as very important for both engaging in (Chung & Joung, ) and abstaining from (Cable et al, ) risk‐taking behaviors. The smoking behavior of close friends and friend‐related stress have been shown to be risk factors in cigarette smoking and the use of other substances (Chung & Joung, ).…”

“…During adolescence, peer networks and their influence have been identified as very important for both engaging in (Chung & Joung, 2014a) and abstaining from (Cable et al, 2017) risk-taking behaviors.…”

“…Factors related to cigarette smoking among adolescents from previous studies conducted in various countries can be organized into four categories. First, personal characteristics, consisting of sex (Chung & Joung, ; Sylvestre, Wellman, O'Loughlin, Dugas, & O'Loughlin, ; Wellman et al, ), grade (Wellman et al, ), and use of other tobacco products (Harrell, Naqvi, Plunk, Ji, & Martins, ; O'Loughlin et al, ); second, the family environment, including parental smoking (Choi, Kim, Lee, Kashiwabara, & Oh, ; Mays et al, ) and SHS in home (O'Loughlin et al, ; Wellman et al, ); third, friends and social contexts, including myths that smoking is good for socializing (Cable, Roman Mella, & Kelly, ) and susceptibility to smoking (El‐Toukhy, Sabado, & Choi, ; Lee, Lee, & Lee, ; Sylvestre et al, ); and fourth, the school and general public environments, including SHS in indoor locations (Sylvestre et al, ), SHS on school property (Wellman et al, ), and exposure to antitobacco advertisements (Wellman et al, ). However, though these studies revealed several factors related to adolescent cigarette smoking, the knowledge gained was somewhat limited, as most were conducted in only one country.…”

Investigating the growing trend of non-drinking among young people; analysis of repeated cross-sectional surveys in England 2005–2015

“…Around 39% of those aged 11–13 never had an alcohol drink in 2003, compared with 48% in 2010 [ 38 ]. Among a cohort of 10 to 15 year olds, happiness and awareness of alcohol-harm was associated with not being initiated into alcohol use [ 39 ]. Increasing awareness of the harms of alcohol may have played an important role in decreasing alcohol consumption among young people and the general population [ 3 ].…”