Fourteen- to 18-year-old adolescents are at an
increased risk to initiate smoking when they
start to work, according to researchers from the Johns
Hopkins Bloomberg School
of Public Health.
Investigators found that adolescents who worked more than
10 hours per week also started smoking
at an earlier age than their peers. The study authors
recommend that the workplace be considered as
a location for smoking prevention programs or policies. The
study is published in the November issue
of the American Journal of Public Health.
"Our findings highlight the importance of working on
smoking behaviors of adolescents, which is
an area that has not received much attention in current
efforts to reduce youth smoking," said Rajeev
Ramchand, lead author of the study. The research was
completed while Ramchand was a doctoral
candidate in the Bloomberg School's Department
of Mental Health.
Using data from the Baltimore Prevention Intervention
Research Center studies, the
researchers analyzed work and smoking patterns of the study
participants, 55 percent of whom were
male and 85 percent, African-American. The adolescents have
been followed since the first grade, so
the study authors were able to review multiple years' worth
of data.
During year 10 of the PIRC studies, 26 percent of the
adolescents worked, and one year later,
close to 40 percent were employed as babysitters, fast food
restaurant staff, store clerks and in
other retail positions. Tobacco use during this time
increased from 13 percent at year 10 to 17
percent at year 11. Adolescents who worked during two
consecutive study years and those who started
to work during the 10th and 11th year of the PIRC study
were more than three times more likely to
report tobacco use initiation when compared to their
nonworking peers.
Adolescents who worked more than 10 hours per week
were 13 years old when they first
smoked, adolescents who didn't work started smoking at 14,
and adolescents who worked less than 10
hours each week started smoking at 15.
Other risk factors for smoking that the study authors
examined were high levels of aggression
in first grade, reduction in parent monitoring during late
childhood and changes in affiliations with
peers who used drugs.
The study results coordinate with the previously
published precocious development theory,
which states that adolescents seek out the rewarding
aspects of adulthood ahead of their
counterparts by assuming social roles and adultlike
behaviors.
"There is a clear relationship between working for pay
and adolescent tobacco use. Ensuring
that adolescents work in smoke-free environments may be a
promising way to prevent some kids from
starting to smoke. However, more research is needed to
systematically evaluate what features about
the workplace, or about working, are most closely linked
with adolescent smoking," said Ramchand, who
is now an associate behavioral scientist with the RAND
Corp.
Ramchand, Nicholas S. Ialongo and Howard D. Chilcoat,
all with the Bloomberg School's
Department of Mental Health at the time of the research,
co-authored the study.
"The Role of Working for Pay on Adolescent Tobacco
Use" was funded by grants from the
National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute
of Mental Health.