Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #108461

Cynthia M. Lakon, PhD, Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, 1000 South Fremont, Unit 8, Room 5237, Alhambra, CA 91803, 626-457-6640, lakon@usc.edu and Thomas W. Valente, PhD, Keck School of Medicine, Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California, 1000 South Fremont, Unit 8, Room 5133, Alhambra, CA 91803.

The social environment is instrumental in initiating and sustaining cigarette smoking among youth; hence, it is critical to understand the social context in which this behavior occurs. The social unit of interest in this study is the peer networks of high risk youth. Youth peer networks have been shown to be positively related to an increased likelihood of smoking behavior. This study is premised upon a social ecological model of health behavior (Bronfenbrenner, 1977; Stokols, 1992), and posits that health behavior is a function of multiple levels of influence in the social environment. Hence, this study investigates relationships between both individual level characteristics (i.e., centrality and multiplexity) and global level characteristics (i.e., clustering and density) of youths' peer networks in relation to cigarette use frequency. This study is a secondary analysis of data from a longitudinal study of social networks and substance abuse in Los Angeles continuation high schools, (N=857) at baseline. Youth completed survey questions including frequency of substance use and items asking them to name their five best friends in the class in which the survey was administered, those with whom they would most like to work on a group project, and those whom they considered the best leaders in their class. A multilevel modeling approach will be used to test relationships between network characteristics and cigarette smoking frequency. Results will be presented and implications for understanding the social context of cigarette smoking among high risk youth and designing prevention programs will be discussed.

Learning Objectives: Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to
• Describe network centrality and multiplexity.
• Describe network clustering and density.
• Describe the social ecological model of health behavior

Keywords: Tobacco, Youth

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.