Youth crowds and cigarette smoking: A prospective study

Abstract

This study examined the prospective relationship between crowd affiliation and smoking behavior among a national sample of 16–22 year old Danes (N = 952). Self-reported data were collected by means of a postal questionnaire at baseline and at 18 months follow-up. The sample included participants, who at baseline reported to identify with a crowd with either a low-smoking norm (n = 705) or a high-smoking norm (n = 247). The results showed that participants, who at baseline identified with a crowd with a high-smoking norm were compared to those, who identified with a low-smoking norm crowd, more likely to have started smoking at time of the follow-up (OR = 2.15). Further, discordance between one's behavior and the norm of the crowd resulted more often in a change in smoking behavior (OR = 2.00) and crowd identification (OR = 2.15) than the absence of such discordance. The results confirm the importance of crowds in smoking initiation and call for more attention to this issue in smoking prevention.

• Youth crowds
• group identification
• adolescence
• smoking, group norms