Institute of Health and Welfare Policy, College of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Department of Sociology, University of Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany.
Addiction. 2021 Jul;116(7):1871-1881. doi: 10.1111/add.15389. Epub 2021 Jan 26.
Adolescent smoking is a health issue and a potential health inequality issue. Education tracking, which is the placement of students into different school types and curricula based on their learning needs or abilities, is an indicator of inequality and risk factor of adolescent smoking. We examined the effect of educational tracking, dividing students into vocational and academic high school tracks, on adolescent smoking in Taiwan.
Longitudinal panel data, collected annually from 2000 over a period of 6 years as part of the Taiwan Youth project, were used.
Adolescents (aged 13-18 years) from the first six waves of the Taiwan Youth Project were included in the project, of whom 2147 had clear information on track attendance in 10th grade, control variables in 7th/8th grades and smoking behavior in 8th grade (before track placement). Post-track smoking behavior was measured at 10th, 11th and 12th grades.
The outcome variable was the self-reported smoking status in the 8th grade and between 10th and 12th grades. The treatment variable of interest was education tracking (vocational versus academic), which was conducted when the student was in 10th grade. Several important confounders were used for the difference-in-differences propensity score matching (e.g. parents' education and same classroom peer smoking).
Placement of a student in the vocational track increased the proportion of smokers by 3.3 percentage points in 10th grade (P = 0.039). The effect was even more pronounced in 11th grade (6.2 percentage points; P = 0.000) and 12th grade (5.9 percentage points; P = 0.003).
Education tracking (placement of students into different school curricula based on learning needs or abilities) appears to be a risk factor for adolescent smoking among Taiwanese adolescents.
青少年吸烟是一个健康问题，也是潜在的健康不平等问题。教育分流是指根据学生的学习需求或能力将学生分配到不同类型的学校和课程中，它是不平等的一个指标，也是青少年吸烟的一个风险因素。我们研究了教育分流，即将学生分为职业和学术高中轨道，对台湾青少年吸烟的影响。
使用了来自台湾青年项目的 6 年期间每年收集的 2000 年的纵向面板数据。
包括台湾青年项目前六波的青少年（年龄在 13-18 岁），其中 2147 人在 10 年级时明确记录了轨道出勤信息、7/8 年级的控制变量以及 8 年级（在轨道分配之前）的吸烟行为。轨道后吸烟行为在 10 年级、11 年级和 12 年级进行测量。
因变量是 8 年级和 10 年级至 12 年级的自我报告吸烟状况。感兴趣的治疗变量是教育分流（职业与学术），当学生在 10 年级时进行。对于差异倾向评分匹配（例如父母教育和同教室同伴吸烟），使用了几个重要的混杂因素。
将学生分配到职业轨道会使 10 年级的吸烟者比例增加 3.3 个百分点（P=0.039）。这种影响在 11 年级更为明显（6.2 个百分点；P=0.000），在 12 年级更为明显（5.9 个百分点；P=0.003）。
教育分流（根据学习需求或能力将学生分配到不同的学校课程中）似乎是台湾青少年吸烟的一个风险因素。
