Citation
Lakon, Cynthia M.; Hipp, John R.; & Timberlake, David S. (2010). The social context of adolescent smoking: A systems perspective. American Journal of Public Health. vol. 100 (7) pp. 1218-1228 , PMCID: PMC2882398Abstract
We used a systems science perspective to examine adolescents' personal networks, school networks, and neighborhoods as a system through which emotional support and peer influence flow, and we sought to determine whether these flows affected past-month smoking at 2 time points, 1994–1995 and 1996. To test relationships, we employed structural equation modeling and used public-use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (n = 6504). Personal network properties affected past-month smoking at both time points via the flow of emotional support. We observed a feedback loop from personal network properties to emotional support and then to past-month smoking. Past-month smoking at time 1 fed back to positively affect in-degree centrality (i.e., popularity). Findings suggest that networks and neighborhoods in this system positively affected past-month smoking via flows of emotional support.URL
http://dx.doi.org/10.2105%2FAJPH.2009.167973Reference Type
Journal ArticleJournal Title
American Journal of Public HealthAuthor(s)
Lakon, Cynthia M.Hipp, John R.
Timberlake, David S.