A newly published study from Yale University reveals that the links between smoking and education in adulthood are in fact explained by characteristics and choices made in adolescence.
It’s well established that adults with college degrees are much less likely to smoke than adults with less education, but the reasons for this inequality are unclear. A new Yale study shows that the links between smoking and education in adulthood are in fact explained by characteristics and choices made in adolescence. The study appears in the journal Social Science Research.
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.
Maralani’s study shows that educational disparities in adult smoking are anchored to experiences from early in life. School policies, peers, and expectations about the future measured at ages 13 to 15 predict smoking at ages 26 to 29. “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.
Maralani also shows that commonly assumed explanations such as college aspirations and analytical skills do not explain the links between smoking and education in adulthood. Instead, Maralani argues, the families in which kids grow up and children’s non-cognitive skills may matter far more than realized in explaining the robust association between education and smoking in adulthood.
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.”
Funding for this study was provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars program.
Reference: “Understanding the links between education and smoking” by Vida Maralani, 17 May 2014, Social Science Research.
DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2014.05.007
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7 Comments
I disagree as people pick up smoking due to various reasons like stress, peers and other reasons. Social factors play a big role.
Seconded. I picked up smoking myself for two reasons only. First, to become part of the very strong in-group culture at my new job and, second, to cope with stress. I actually hated smoking; I had to force myself to do it for months until I actually began to enjoy it.
hmm just stop smoking..dat’s it.
I find this spurious since many great and famous scientists were also heavy smokers. My own father, who was an engineer with a masters degree in physics was a heavy smoker until his 60s. Martin Kamen, discoverer of carbon 14 was a smoker. Robert Oppenheimer. Many others. And that is just men of science. Many other geniuses throughout history were smokers. I myself was a smoker from the age of 13 until 63, when I quit 8 years ago and I have a high inteligence quotient (for what that’s worth). But keep on workinng on it. There are many other good reasons not to smoke.
Sorry for typo. Why can’t we edit our comments?
Interesting… I quit anyways though.
Someone should look into epigenetic factors that might influence future smoking.
For example, my mother smoked while pregnant with me, so I was likely addicted to nicotine coming out of the womb and I believe that my genes were modified to be more receptive to smoking. I wonder how many crank babies might be caused by nicotine withdrawal when the exit the womb?
Luckily, I regularly got my daily dose of 2nd hand nicotine as my parents smoked in the house from when they got up in the morning until they went to bed. Two to three packs a day each! They smoked in the car, often with the windows up, so we had to breathe that smoke in every minute that we were home or with them. The house likely stank but I didn’t realize it as my nose was desensitized to the smell of stale smoke.
I imagine that my clothes and hair smelled of cigarette smoke throughout school. I wound up smoking for 45 years before finally quitting for good 12 years ago.