Popular kids more likely to smoke: Study

Washington: Popular kids are more likely to smoke cigarettes than their less popular counterparts, a new study has claimed. Researchers from the University of Southern California (USC) and the University of Texas studied seven Southern California high schools and found a correlation between popularity and smoking. Researchers asked 1,950 students in the ninth and 10th grades in October 2006 and 2007 whether they had ever tried smoking, how frequently they had smoked in the past 30 days, how many students their age they thought smoked cigarettes, how they perceived their close friends felt about smoking, and who their five best friends were at school. Popularity was measured by the frequency that other respondents named a student as a friend. [caption id=“attachment_447890” align=“alignnone” width=“320”]  Reuters[/caption] The study found that popular students became smokers earlier than the less popular and those who believed their close friends smoked were more likely to also smoke, even if their perception was incorrect. Students who became smokers between the ninth and 10th grade were more likely to form friendships with other smokers. In previous USC-led studies of students in the sixth through 12th grades across the United States and in Mexico the same association had been observed. “That we’re still seeing this association more than 10 years later, despite marginal declines in smoking, suggests that popularity is a strong predictor of smoking behaviour,” Thomas W Valente, lead author of three prior studies on the subject said in a statement. The study will be published in the Journal of Adolescent Health. PTI