Looking like a smoker, a smokescreen to racism? Māori perceived appearance linked to smoking status

ABSTRACT

Objectives: Māori, the indigenous peoples of Aotearoa (New Zealand), continue to exhibit the highest rate of smoking of any ethnic group in the nation. Clarifying the present day factors which perpetuate Māori smoking has become matter of some urgency.

Design: We investigate links between subjective elements of Māori identity, demographic factors and perceived discrimination with smoking status in a national probability sample of self-identified Māori (N = 667).

Results: Our results suggest that core aspects of Māori identity and cultural engagement were not significantly linked with smoking. However, the extent to which participants felt they were perceived as prototypically Māori (measured as Perceived Appearance) was reliably associated with smoking. The effect of Perceived Appearance held when adjusting for perceived experiences of discrimination and other standard demographic indicators.

Conclusion: Our analysis indicates that simply feeling that one is more visibly Māori is associated with an increased likelihood of smoking. This may reflect how Māori negotiate the larger systemic forces of racism present in New Zealand society.

KEYWORDS:

• Māori
• smoking
• tobacco
• perceived appearance
• prototypicality

Acknowledgements

This paper is based on part of Emerald Muriwai’s Masters thesis supervised by Chris Sibley. The research was one project being undertaken as part of the New Zealand’s Tobacco Control Research Tūranga: A programme of innovative research to halve smoking prevalence in Aotearoa/New Zealand within a decade.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The Tūranga is supported through funding from the Reducing Tobacco-related Harm Research Partnership co-funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand and the Ministry of Health of New Zealand [HRC grant 11/818]. This research was also supported by a Te Whare Kura New Knowledge Acquisition Grant awarded to Carla Houkamau and Chris Sibley [#03903/1550]. Data collection for the NZAVS was also supported by a Templeton World Charity Foundation Grant [ID: 0077].