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Health Education Research Advance Access originally published online on October 17, 2007
Health Education Research 2008 23(6):1029-1038; doi:10.1093/her/cym063
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Social contexts in adolescent smoking: does school policy matter?

D. Piontek1,*, A. Buehler1, U. Rudolph2, K. Metz3, C. Kroeger3, S. Gradl3, S. Floeter3 and C. Donath3

1 Prevention Research, Institut für Therapieforschung, 80804 München, Germany
2 Department of General and Biological Psychology, Chemnitz University of Technology, 09107 Chemnitz, Germany
3 Tobacco Dependence, Institut für Therapieforschung, 80804 München, Germany

* Correspondence to: D. Piontek. E-mail: piontek{at}ift.de

According to an ecological perspective in psychology and in line with social cognitive theory, smoking behaviour is determined by different social contexts (for example, peers, family and school) providing adolescents with important role models. This paper investigates the effects of personal characteristics as well as family, peer and school context variables on youth smoking behaviour. We hypothesize that school smoking policy variables predict adolescents' smoking in addition to other context variables. Data were obtained from a self-report survey administered to 3364 students in 40 secondary schools in Bavaria, Germany. For both younger (10–15 years) and older (16–21 years) students, strong associations were found between smoking behaviour and (i) smoking best friends and friends in general, (ii) other substance use and (iii) school performance. In the younger age group, the non-existence of smoking bans for students was associated with an increased risk of being smoker. For the older students, a positive association was found between the presence of smoking teachers on school grounds and smoking behaviour. Results are discussed considering methodological aspects and public health concerns.

Received on June 1, 2006; accepted on August 26, 2007


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