THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGE SPOKEN AND SMOKING AMONG HISPANIC-LATINO YOUTH IN NEW-YORK-CITY

This study was designed to examine the relationship between language s poken and smoking (at least once a month) among New York City Hispanic -Latino adolescents, using a large sample of specific Hispanic-Latino subgroups (Puerto Rican, Dominican, Colombian, and Ecuadorian youth) a nd controlling for social and environmental factors. The sample includ ed 3,129 Hispanic-Latino students in 47 New York City public and paroc hial schools. Of the total sample, 43 percent were Puerto Rican, 20 pe rcent Dominican, 7 percent Colombian, and 7 percent Ecuadorian. The st udents completed questionnaires that were designed to assess social an d environmental influences on their smoking and determine what languag es they spoke (English and Spanish) with parents and friends. Self-rep orted smoking data were collected by means of the bogus pipeline to en hance the veracity of self-reports. In the logistic regression model, including background, social influence, and language use variables, 10 1 students were smokers. Logistic regression analysis indicated that b eing bicultural (speaking both English and Spanish) at home and with f riends appeared to increase the odds of currently smoking. Separate lo gistic regression analyses for girls and boys revealed that being bicu ltural at home increased the odds of currently smoking for boys but no t girls. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for prev ention.