Cigarette Advertising and Adolescent Intentions to Smoke Cedric Greive
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Cigarette Advertising and Adolescent Intentions to Smoke Cedric Greive Avondale College Abstract The issue relating cigarette advertising to adolescent smoking was briefly raised in mid-1994. This report examines the potential effect of cigarette advertising upon adolescent intentions to smoke. From a review of the literature a causal model of attitudinal belief was developed. This model linked exogenous background factors through potential beliefs about smoking to intention with regard to smoking behaviour. The belief scales used in the study were created from adolescent perceptions of the propositions about smoking implicit within the cigarette advertising commonly found in magazines in 1990. These perceptions were turned into potential belief scales and included in a questionnaire. Data collected in the Hunter region allowed a compatibility of the model with the data to be tested. The study found that those adolescents who took part in the study believed that the propositions implicit within the advertising suggested that smoking provided the participant with a social advantage and an enhanced sexual image. They also believed that the advertising was directed at themselves and was meant to influence their decisions about smoking. Results indicated that those respondents who intended to smoke were more likely to believe that smoking provided a social advantage and an enhanced sexual image than were those who had no intention to smoke. Path analysis found that the two belief clusters were linked to both experimentation with smoking and to future intention with regard smoking. Currently, some 18,000 Australians have their lives prematurely terminated by diseases developed or exacerbated by habitual smoking of cigarettes or the second-hand inhalation of tobacco smoke (Woodward, Roberts & Reynolds, 1989; Shean, 1989; Musk & Shean, 1988a). Three quarters of all smokers began their habit as juveniles (Hill, White, Pain & Gardner, 1990). As of the end of the last decade, some 70,000 Australian children and adolescents commenced smoking each year (Armstrong, Daube & Shean, 1988), spending in excess of $30,000,000 annually on cigarettes (Hill, Willcox, Gardner and Jouston, 1987). Despite this, cigarette advertising has been freely permitted within magazines sold in Australia until December, 1990. The question as to whether or not such advertising influenced the onset of smoking among teenagers has been hotly debated and denied by the tobacco companies. This paper will re-examine the nature of the link between the imagery within magazine advertising of cigarettes and the potential onset of smoking among Australians adolescents. The literature dealing with tobacco use suggests that the onset of smoking among Australian juveniles is not the result of random behaviour. It will be argued that the literature variously infers, suggests and describes a causal process not at all dissimilar to the Fishbein and Ajzen model of attitudinal causality (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975; Ajzen, 1988). According to this model, intention to behave in a particular way is determined by the consolidation of attitudinal beliefs that relate to the object of the behaviour. This paper will argue that cigarette advertising may influence intention to smoke by fostering and reinforcing those beliefs which view smoking as both pleasurable and personally advantageous. The study which follows will test the compatibility of the causal model of attitudinal influence with data collected within the lower Hunter. Literature Review Characteristics of Young Smokers Young smokers emerge from the literature as a vulnerable sub-group of society. Many of them tend to come from homes with poor economic resources (Pederson & Lefcoe, 1986; Michell & Stenning, 1989) in which smoking is regarded as normal (Goddard, 1992; Swan, Creeser & Murray, 1990) and in which there can often be conflict between family members (Nelson, Budd, Eiser, Morgan, Gammage & Gray, 1985). Many young smokers report that their parents appear to be disinterested in their activities (Eiser, Morgan, Gammage & Gray, 1989b; Noller & Callan, 1991), allow them large blocks of unsupervised time and do not require them to account for any money that they might have (Nelson et al, 1985; Robson, 1984). Young smokers are highly tolerant of smoking (Michell & Stenning, 1989) and appear to choose their friends on the basis of the friends' smoking status (Nelson et al, 1985). They tend to have poor self esteem (Nash, 1987), an external locus of control (Eiser, Morgan, Gammage & Gray, 1989b) and to exhibit a high degree of social anxiety (Gordon, 1986). At school, they tend to be poor readers (Sunseri, Alberti, Kent, Schoenberger, Sunseri, Amuwo & Vickers, 1983), underachievers (Stanton & Silver, 1991; Piepe, Charlton, Morley, Morley & Yerrell, 1986) and to have a low expectation of success (Gerber & Newman, 1989). They are more likely to be problematic students who frequently truant (Nash, 1987; Robson, 1984). They appear to be more willing to indulge in risky behaviour (Marwick, 1988) including premature sexual activity and indulgence in alcohol (Ashton & Stepney, 1982a; Hill, Willcox, Gardner & Jouston, 1987; Fisher & Bauman, 1988). They tend to be fatalistic about their own health (Eiser, Eiser, Gammage & Morgan, 1989a) and although they appear to know the dangers of smoking, including its addictive nature, this has little moderating effect on their behaviour (Marwick, 1988; Maddock, 1987; 1985). For the purposes of this study, one of the more significant characteristics of young smokers is their intention with regard smoking. Young smokers indicate a strong intention to continue smoking (Goddard, 1992; Sutton, 1992) and the Armstrong team found that the stated intention of non-smokers was predictive of smoking behaviour a year later (Armstrong, de Klerk, Shean, Dunn & Dolin, 1990). While these characteristics cannot be generalised to all young smokers, the literature indicates that within their ranks, there is an over-representation of those to whom these descriptions apply. Factors Related to the Onset of Smoking In the great majority of cases, habitual smoking commences within the age-range of 10 through 16 years (Gray & Hill, 1975; Hill & Gray, 1982; Hill, 1988; Hill, White, Pain & Gardner, 1990). This period includes some of the turbulent years of adolescence when young people are trying to form an individual identity, distinct from that of parents and family (Noller & Callan, 1991). It is a period when there is exploration of personal roles and an open curiosity about objects and relationships within their world. Of course this includes an experimentation with those behaviours normally regarded as belonging to the adult world - including smoking. As would be expected, a much higher proportion of juveniles will puff a cigarette out of curiosity than approach smoking with the intention of becoming a regular smoker (Hill, Willcox, Gardner, & Jouston, 1987; Hill et al, 1990). It has been suggested that since the initial contact with nicotine is often unpleasant (dizziness and nausea is often experienced) there has to be some mechanism driving an intention to persist with the smoking of cigarettes until a tolerance to nicotine has been established (Ashton & Stepney, 1982b). It is the combination of factors that underlie this willingness to persist with smoking that sets the determined young smokers apart from those who are merely curious. Intention to behave in a particular way has been linked to attitude and belief (Myers, 1986), and one of the factors that distinguishes many young smokers from their non-smoking peers is their attitude toward smoking behaviour. They believe that smoking will ultimately be pleasurable (Novacek, Raskin & Hogan, 1991). This is particularly the case for those children whose family members or friends have modelled smoking behaviour before them throughout their childhood or for those who wish to emulate a particularly admired older person (Michell & Stenning, 1989). Further there are those who have used smoking as a means of signalling their independence or simply defying parental or school authority (Nash, 1987). Children and adolescents who display this type of behaviour often come from stressful family situations in which an authoritarian parenting style is evident (Noller & Callan, 1991). Many young smokers believe that the act of smoking can create a favourable personal image. For example the act of smoking can make them appear to be grown up; boys can appear to be cool, brave and masculine and girls can appear to be daring, independent and feminine (Ritchie, 1988; Nash, 1987; Aitken & Eadie, 1990; Urberg & Robbins, 1981). They also perceive smoking to be a social activity and associate it with a variety of social benefits. Cigarettes can be shared among friends, the offer of a cigarette is an acceptable way of initiating contact with another person and communal smoking is relaxing and can be an indication of acceptance within the 'gang' (Urberg & Robbins, 1981; Urberg, Shyu & Liang, 1990). Although they are well aware of such personal costs as the staining of teeth and fingers, bad breath and the clinging odour of stale smoke, the committed young smoker believes that the benefits outweigh the costs (Maddock, 1985; 1987). Attitudes such as those described above are not formed in a vacuum. Attitudes are internalised over time during which the individual firstly witnesses and models the behaviour of others (Bandura, 1977) and then gains first hand experience. In short there has to be some