An Exploratory Study of Young Adults

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Timothy P. Christy, PhD University of
St. Thomas, MN Jeanne R. Steele, PhD
University of St. Thomas, MN
An Exploratory Study of Young Adults Attitudes
and Behaviors Toward Smoking in Metro and
Non-Metro Communities
Made possible by a grant from the

Minnesota Partnership for Action Against Tobacco
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Research Purpose
Understand the contextual influences
surrounding smoking behavior among
18-to-24-year-olds
Understand the contextual influences
surrounding smoking behavior among
18-to-24-year-olds

• Twin Cities and Iron Range
• Students and non-students

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Past Research
2003 Minnesota Adult Tobacco Survey
2003 Minnesota Adult Tobacco Survey

• Nearly 40 of young adults smoke
• 25 of young adult smokers do not consider
  themselves smokers

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Past Research
Disparity
Disparity

• Education
• Income
• Occupation

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Past Research
Limitations
Limitations

• Few studies that examine disparity among young
  adults
• Needed qualitative examination of sociocultural
  factors

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Young Adults
Unique segment
Unique segment

• Transition age
• Not yet heavy smokers
• Highly aware of smoking risks

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Young Adults
So why do they persist?
So why do they persist?

• Sociocultural factors
• Attitudes toward smoking
• Reasons for starting and stopping

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Methods
Qualitative examination
Recruitment from survey participants and referrals
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Participants
Eleven focus groups
Eleven focus groups

• Total of 85 smokers and non-smokers

Twin Cities n 30 17 male/13 female Mean age
21.0
The Range n 55 34 male/ 21 female Mean age
20.1
Twin Cities n 30 17 male/13 female Mean age
21.0
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Locales
Twin Cities
Twin Cities

• Population of 2,642,056
• Median household income of 54,304
• High number of white collar jobs

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Locales
Iron Range (The Range)
Iron Range (The Range)

• Population of 197,000
• Median household income of 36,303
• High number of blue collar jobs

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Sociocultural Factors
CULTURE
CULTURE

• Liberation
• Productivity
• Future-oriented

Twin Cities

• Individualism
• Few outlets
• Now-oriented

The Range
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Sociocultural Factors
CULTURE
Str
ess
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Sociocultural Factors
CULTURE
TRADITION
TRADITION

• Elders
• Rite of passage
• Ritual

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Sociocultural Factors
TRADITION
CULTURE
SOCIAL CIRCLE

• Meet others
• Belongingness
• Drinking

SOCIAL CIRCLE
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Attitudes Toward Smoking
Disgusting
Disgusting
I always thought smoking was really
disgusting. I looked at it and I was like, this
is disgusting, I should not do it. But I feel,
who wouldnt take some smoke?
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Attitudes Toward Smoking
Disgusting
Disgusting
I remember being grossed out by the smell of
cigarettes at one point. Even now Ill get in
my car on a hot summer day and have the smell of
stale smoke in my car and thats gross.
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Attitudes Toward Smoking
Unhealthy
Unhealthy
Its not very good for you, so its not very
good for your respiratory system, cigarette
smoke.
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Attitudes Toward Smoking
Unhealthy
Unhealthy
Well they say that things like smoking can lead
to a low birth weight and, like, premature labor
and just all sorts of problems. And thats just
not something that I wanted to risk or worry
about.
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Attitudes Toward Smoking
Temporary habit
Temporary habit
Without hesitance I want to quit down the
road. I have a plan right now six months from
now Im not going to be smoking anymore. I just
feel its about the age of mid 20s, to just kind
of get rid of it because its not good for you in
the long run and, you know, its something
associated with your youth.
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Attitudes Toward Smoking
Temporary habit
Temporary habit
Ill stop when I have kids.
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Attitudes Toward Smoking
Choice
Choice
If my daughter wants to grow up and smoke,
thats her choice, its her body.
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Attitudes Toward Smoking
Choice
Choice
Im not going to tell anybody cant smoke
cigarettes. I just leave the room.
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Smoking Behaviors
Boredom
Boredom
A lot of it has to do with stress and being
bored and like theres nothing to do, especially
around the Range you know. We live in a ghetto
town. We just have nothing to do so a lot of
people are like well lets go smoke a cigarette
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Smoking Behaviors
Stress
Stress
My doctor said that if a cigarette could keep
me calm as long as I wasnt smoking anymore than
what Id gotten down to he said that my kid would
probably be better off having the cigarette than
all the physical stress that my body was going
through cause I was stressed out all the time.
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Smoking Behaviors
Stress
Stress
Stress is a huge factor. I worked in the
restaurant industry for about four or five years,
and thats when I did my heaviest smoking,
because you know, you wait on tables and its
crazy and you get a break and its a bliss moment
where you can just chill out.
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Smoking Behaviors
Drinking
Drinking
Its nice to say, no I only smoke when Im drunk
or when Im drinking. It just makes me feel
better when I say that, I think. But it just
feels better for me that I can say that I usually
only do it when Im drinking.
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Smoking Behaviors
Drinking
Drinking
When people start to drink you lose a little bit
of your inhibitions. Maybe if you thought
smoking was such a bad activity beforehand, maybe
after you get a couple of cocktails in you it
smells kind of good and, hey, why not have a
cigarette and relax a little bit. The people you
are with are smoking.
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Smoking Behaviors
Social influence
Social influence
I know freshman year over at the dormsevery
night there would be ten or fifteen people
outside smoking and kind of conversing. And it
made me want to start smoking to meet all these
different people. And I could see that as one of
the advantages of people smoking, the opportunity
to meet new people.
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Smoking Behaviors
Social influence
Social influence
And thats your friends, and if you want to be
around them youre gonna be smoking. Like, when
Im home, I dont even think about smoking.
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Barriers to Quitting
Environment
Associations
Cultural normalcy
External benefits
Lack of Salience
Mental lack of readiness
Disregard for future
Addictive personality
Negative consequences of quitting
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Twin Cities v. The Range

• Smoking as a way to belong

• Smoking as a way to fill time

• Smoking as a way to belong
• Concern for the future

• Smoking as a way to belong
• Concern for the future
• Image-centric

• Smoking as a way to fill time
• Concern for the here and now

• Smoking as a way to belong
• Concern for the future
• Image-centric
• Concern for ones own health

• Smoking as a way to fill time
• Concern for the here and now
• Respect-centric

• Smoking as a way to fill time
• Concern for the here and now
• Respect-centric
• Concern for loved ones health

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Intervention
Understand sociocultural factors
Understand sociocultural factors

• Appeal to the here and now
• Create non-smoking social groups and activities
• Involve young adults

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Shahid Alvi, PhD Ilona Kearney, MSW
Xenia Grushetsky, Research Assistant Brian
Thornton, Research Assistant Jon Stierman,
Research Assistant
Special Thanks
The Rest of
the Team
MPAAT