Adolescent's Weight Concerns and the Onset of Smoking

Abstract

The hypothesis that adolescents start smoking because they perceive it as a strategy to control their weight was examined. At the same time, we controlled for sociodemographic, individual, and parental factors. Longitudinal data were collected among 428 Dutch families (mother, father, and two siblings between 13 and 16 years of age) in two measurements: the first in 2002–2003 and the second a year later. Logistic regression analyses supported the hypothesis: weight control motives to smoke were positively related with smoking initiation. The study's limitations and implications are discussed.

RÉSUMÉ

Les soucis de poids chez les adolescents et le début du tabagisme

L’hypothèse, que les adolescents commencent à fumer parce qu’ils perçoivent le tabagisme comme une stratégie afin de contrôler leur poids, a été considérée. Au même temps, nous contrôlons des facteurs sociodémographiques, individuels et parentaux. Des données longitudinales ont été recueillies parmi 428 familles néerlandaises (mère, père avec deux enfants entre 13–16 ans) en deux mesures: la première 2002–2003, et la deuxième un an plus tard. Les analyses de régressions logistiques soutiennent l’hypothèse: les contrôles du poids comme motif pour fumer ont été de façon positive reliés à l’amorce du tabagisme. Les implications sont discutées.

Mots clé: adolescent; tabagisme; soucis d’obésité; motifs de contrôle du poids; facteurs parentaux.

RESUMEN

La preocupación por el peso de los adolescentes y el comienzo del hábito de fumar

La hipótesis de que los adolescentes comienzan a fumar porque ellos lo perciben como una estrategia para controlar su peso, fue examinada. Al mismo tiempo, los factores sociodemográficos, individuales, y paternales fueron controlados. Los datos longitudinales fueron recogidos entre 428 familias holandesas (madre, padre, y dos hermanos entre 13–16 años) en dos medidas: la primera durante el 2002–2003, y la segunda un año más tarde. Los análisis de regresión logísticos apoyaron dicha hipótesis: los motivos de control de peso han sido positivamente relacionados con la iniciación al tabaco. Las implicaciones serán discutidas.

Palabras claves: adolescente; fumar; preocupaciones de peso; motivos de control de peso; factores paternales.

Keywords :

• Adolescent
• smoking
• weight concerns
• weight control motives
• parental factors

THE AUTHORS

Zeena Harakeh (Ph.D. cum laude, Radboud University Nijmegen, 2006) is an assistant professor at the Interdisciplinary Social Science Department, Utrecht University. Her research has focused on the influence of environmental (parents, siblings, peers, media) and individual factors (personality, genetics) on smoking among adolescents and young adults. She conducted survey studies and experimental, observational studies. Her recent research (funded by NWO, the Dutch organization for scientific research) exists of experimental, observational studies focusing on how peers influence adolescents’ risk behavior. Furthermore, she is recently also involved in the 12-year follow-up study among Dutch adolescents (TRAILS) focusing on the predictors of risk behavior. She is (co-) author of over 25 published articles and book chapters on adolescent substance use. For her work she received prizes and extra grants for research and travel, including an NWO four-year Veni-grant for promising young researchers.

Rutger Engels (Ph.D., University of Maastricht, 1998) is head of the department of Developmental Psychopathology, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. In 1998, he started as a post-doc at the Department of Child and Adolescent Studies (Utrecht University) on a project on parent–peer linkages, and was appointed as assistant professor in 2000. In December 2001, he started as a full professor in Nijmegen. He studies the interplay between individual characteristics (e.g., personality, genes, cognitions) and (social) environmental factors (e.g., parents, peers, contextual cues) on different stages of adolescent smoking and alcohol use, as well as normative and nonnormative eating behavior (e.g., overeating). His department is embedded in the local, KNAW acknowledged Behavioural Science Institute (BSI). Professor Dr. Engels is currently (co)promoter of 19 Ph.D. projects, 16 of which are located at the department. As PI and co-PI, he has obtained grants from NWO, Dutch Cancer Society, Dutch Asthma Foundation, STIVORO, Ministry of Health, ZonMw, RU, and UU. He is assistant editor of the leading journal in the field (Addiction), and has coauthored more than 200 papers in SSCI and SCI journals. Since 2008, he is research director of the BSI.

Karin Monshouwer (Ph.D., Utrecht University, 2008) is an epidemiologist and works as a researcher at the Netherlands Institute of Mental Health and Addiction (Trimbos Institute) and as a post-doc researcher at Utrecht University. Her research has focused on alcohol and drug use in the adolescent population. She is the project leader of large-scale surveys on youth substance use and principal investigator of the Netherlands for the European School Survey of Alcohol and Drug use (ESPAD). Currently she is studying the developmental trajectories of youth substance use and externalizing problems using data of a 12-year follow-up study among Dutch adolescents (TRAILS). She is a (co-) author of over 30 articles, book chapters, and reports on adolescent substance use.

Notes

1 This prospective study “Family and Health” has originally been set up to extensively examine different socialization processes underlying a wide variety of health behaviors (e.g., alcohol, smoking, eating behavior) within intact families. We used a full-family design to assess the influence of mothers and fathers separately and to incorporate a multiple-perspective approach focusing on mothers, fathers, and adolescents’ perceptions. Furthermore, we included two adolescents since our aim was to examine whether, in intact families, the effects of predictors varied in older and younger siblings and whether differences in development of older and younger siblings existed. In this study and in this paper, two teens, non-twins, were important because we could also look whether birth order moderated the associations of weight control motives to smoke and adolescent smoking initiation. In other words, we examined whether effects for weight control motives to smoke on adolescents’ smoking initiation differed for older and younger siblings within one family.

2 In this study we did not test whether this effect could be explained by mediation (i.e., whether mothers’ BMIs affected adolescent smoking initiation through adolescent weight control motives for smoking) as both mothers’ BMIs and adolescent weight concerns were assessed at Time 1. The results of mediation effects would therefore theoretically be less informative.