Smoking Related to Choices Made in Teens, Family Environment :Study

Researchers at Yale University highlight the link between education in adulthood and smoking and this depends on the choices made during adolescence. The finding is based on the analysis of data collected over 14 years.

"The study uses data collected over 14 years to link the smoking and educational histories of adults ages 26 to 29 to their experiences in adolescence. It turns out that differences in smoking by the level of education the person will eventually complete appear as early as age 12, long before that education is obtained," writes author Vida Maralani, assistant professor of sociology at Yale.

This study reveals that educational disparities in adult smoking are experiences from early life. Smoking at age 26-29 can be easily predicted by considering factors such as school policies, peers and expectation of future that is evaluated at age 13-15.

"This means that in order to reduce educational inequalities in smoking, we have to figure out exactly which characteristics before age 12 predict that a child will both not take up smoking and stay committed to school," Maralani said.

Even the commonly held assumptions such as college aspirations and analytical skills fail to explain the association between smoking and education in adulthood. Rather this association depends on the family in which the children are being raised and their non-cognitive skills.

Maralani writes, "Overall, educational inequalities in adult smoking are better understood as a bundling of advantageous statuses that develops in childhood, rather than the effect of education producing better health."

This finding may throw light on a study that analyzed results from a large European study and claimed lower levels of education are tied with increased risk of hospitalization due to chronic heart failure.

The study appears in the journal Social Science Research.