Unpopular teens are more likely to smoke in adulthood, a new study says.
Researchers from Sweden found unpopularity of a student among peers increasing his/her risks of smoking in adulthood. For the study, they used data that contained details of about 15,000 individuals from birth to middle age. Of the total participants, 2,329 provided details about their smoking habits, peer status at school and smoking habits later in adulthood. To determine the popularity of a student, they provided names of three peers they would like to work with.
Depending on the number of times a student was selected by classmates, researchers created five sections - class favorites (seven times or more), popular (between four and six) accepted (between two and three), peripheral (one time), and marginalized students (selected by no one).
Researchers found lower status of teens associated with both regular (less than 20 cigarettes a day) and heavy smoking (more than 20 cigarettes) in adulthood. Unpopularity was found as influencing students to start controversial behavior like smoking, and popular students were found avoiding smoking to meet social expectations. Unaccepted students were found to start the smoking habit early to draw attention.
The current findings come as a contradiction to some previous studies. A study reported in the Journal of Adolescent Health earlier this year found students who are popular among their peers and school more likely to smoke cigarettes than their unpopular counterparts.
The findings come at a time when nearly 43.8 million adults in the U.S. smoke cigarettes. Cigarettes contain about 4,000 toxic chemicals and have been linked to a wide range of diseases like lung cancer, heart disease, stroke and cancer. According to the American Heart Association, most men and women start smoking during their teenage years.
This is not the first study to find a link between unpopularity in school and health problems in later life. A team of Swedish researchers found children who are socially isolated in school and experience peer problems in adolescence more likely to suffer from metabolic syndrome in middle-age.
