Social Development Research Group, School of Social Work, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center, School of Social Work, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ.
Nicotine Tob Res. 2021 Feb 16;23(3):518-526. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntaa019.
Reducing cigarette use is a major public health goal in the United States. Questions remain, however, about the potential for the social environment in the adult years-particularly in the 30s and beyond-to influence cigarette use. This study tested pathways hypothesized by the social development model to understand the extent to which social environmental factors at age 33 (eg, involvement with smokers or with physically active people) contribute to changes in cigarette use from age 30 to age 39. Both combustible and electronic cigarette use were investigated.
Data were from the Seattle Social Development Project, a longitudinal study of 808 diverse participants with high retention. Self-reports assessed social developmental constructs, combustible and electronic cigarette use, and demographic measures across survey waves.
At age 30, 32% of the sample reported past-month cigarette use. Using structural equation modeling, results showed high stability in cigarette use from age 30 to 39. After accounting for this stability, cigarette-using social environments at age 33 predicted personal beliefs or norms about smoking (eg, acceptability and social costs), which in turn predicted combustible cigarette use at age 39. Cigarette-using environments, however, directly predicted electronic cigarette use at age 39, with no significant role for beliefs about smoking.
Cigarette use was highly stable across the 30s, but social environmental factors provided significant partial mediation of this stability. Pathways were different for combustible and electronic cigarette use, however, with personal smoking norms playing an important role for the former but not the latter.
This study addresses the need for longitudinal investigation of social mechanisms and cigarette use in the 30s. Findings reinforce efforts to prevent the uptake of cigarettes prior to the 30s because, once started, smoking is highly stable. But social environmental factors remain viable intervention targets in the 30s to disrupt this stability. Addressing personal norms about smoking's acceptability and social costs is likely a promising approach for combustible cigarette use. Electronic cigarettes, however, present a new challenge in that many perceived social costs of cigarette use do not readily translate to this relatively recent technology.
减少吸烟是美国的一个主要公共卫生目标。然而，关于成年后的社会环境（尤其是 30 多岁及以后）是否会影响吸烟的问题仍存在疑问。本研究通过社会发展模型来检验各种假设途径，以了解 33 岁时的社会环境因素（例如，与吸烟者或与积极运动者的交往）在多大程度上导致 30 岁至 39 岁期间吸烟习惯的变化。本研究调查了可燃香烟和电子烟的使用情况。
数据来自西雅图社会发展项目，这是一项针对 808 名不同参与者的纵向研究，保留率很高。在整个调查期间，参与者通过自我报告评估了社会发展结构、可燃香烟和电子烟的使用情况以及人口统计数据。
在 30 岁时，808 名参与者中有 32%的人报告过去一个月有吸烟行为。通过结构方程模型，结果表明从 30 岁到 39 岁期间吸烟习惯具有高度稳定性。在考虑到这种稳定性之后，33 岁时的吸烟环境预测了个人对吸烟的信念或规范（例如，可接受性和社会成本），而这些信念或规范反过来又预测了 39 岁时的可燃香烟使用情况。然而，吸烟环境直接预测了 39 岁时电子烟的使用，而吸烟对吸烟的信念没有起到显著作用。
30 多岁时吸烟习惯具有高度稳定性，但社会环境因素对这种稳定性提供了显著的部分中介作用。但是，可燃香烟和电子烟的使用途径不同，个人吸烟规范对前者很重要，但对后者不重要。
本研究满足了对 30 多岁期间社会机制和吸烟行为进行纵向研究的需求。研究结果强化了在 30 岁之前努力预防吸烟的重要性，因为一旦开始吸烟，这种行为就会非常稳定。但是，社会环境因素仍然是 30 多岁期间打破这种稳定性的可行干预目标。解决吸烟的可接受性和社会成本等个人规范可能是控制可燃香烟使用的一种有希望的方法。然而，电子烟则带来了新的挑战，因为许多人认为吸烟的社会成本并不容易转化为这种相对较新的技术。
