Beliefs about smoking among adolescents - Gender and ethnic differences

A consistent 20-year trend in adolescent tobacco use is that African Americ an youth smoke cigarettes at a lower rate than other ethnic groups. To bett er understand this difference, our study identified gender and ethnic belie fs about cigarette smoking and abstention from smoking. In a multi-ethnic s ample of adolescents, based on qualitative analysis of 63 in depth intervie ws with African American, Hispanic, and European American adolescents, we f ound unique beliefs. In general, adolescents were well aware of the adverse health effects of smoking. Female adolescents were more concerned with aes thetics as a smoking disadvantage than were male adolescents. Unique to thi s study, African Americans and Never Smokers emphasized moral and ethical r easons for not smoking. Examples of the Moral/Ethical theme are "They know wrong from right" and "It is not right to do it." We discuss how the Moral/ Ethical theme may have developed. Further, we present recommendations for f uture research to clarify influences for smoking and not smoking by gender and ethnic group among adolescents.