Working Adolescents More Likely Than Their Non-working Peers To Smoke Cigarettes

Main Category: Smoking / Quit Smoking
Article Date: 28 Sep 2007 - 15:00 PDT

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Working for pay during the school year is positively associated with the likelihood of tobacco use among adolescents.

Researchers used data from the second generation of the Baltimore Prevention and Intervention Research Center studies to investigate the link between working for pay and adolescent tobacco use. The study involved 799 adolescents who were followed since first grade. Tenth graders who worked more than 10 hours a week on average (high intensity) were three times more likely to report current use of tobacco than were non-workers. Surprisingly, students that worked moderately (less than 10 hours a week) tended to initiate tobacco use later than did non-workers and high-intensity workers.

"Given that young workers in this study and in most other studies are concentrated among certain industries (such as fast food, other restaurant work and retail), efforts should be made to encourage these industries to be smoke-free," the study's authors said. "Previous research has indicated that totally smoke-free workplaces are associated with reductions in prevalence of smoking, and we believe that these policies may also lead to reduced smoking incidence among young people." [From: The Role of Working for Pay on Adolescent Tobacco Use. Contact: Rajeev Ramchand, PhD, RAND Corporation, Arlington, Va., Rajeev_ramchand@rand.org .]

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