Youth Supplying Tobacco to Other Minors: Evaluating Individual and Town-Level Correlates

• NCJ Number: 216439
• Journal: Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 35 Issue: 5 Dated: October 2006 Pages: 705-715
• Author(s): Steven B. Pokorny; Leonard A. Jason; Michael E. Schoeny
• Date Published: October 2006
• Length: 11 pages
• Grant Number(s): CA80288
• Sponsoring Agency: National Cancer Institute
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Utilizing regression analyses, this study examined individual and community correlates of youth supplying tobacco to other minors.

Abstract

Findings from this study indicate that community attitudes supporting tobacco possession laws were associated with a lower-likelihood of supplying tobacco to minors. The study also found that several individual-level factors increased the likelihood of youth supplying tobacco to other minors, including: being a past versus never smoker, being a current versus a past or never smoker, having used a social source for obtaining tobacco in the past 30 days, having purchased tobacco in the past 30 days, successfully purchasing tobacco during the last attempt to buy it, and having more friends who use tobacco. An unexpected finding suggested by the interaction effects indicating that purchasing tobacco in the past month or being successful during the last effort to purchase tobacco dramatically increased the odds of supplying tobacco to other minors for never smokers and past smokers compare to current smokers. In conclusion, it is apparent that town-level variables, such as support for tobacco possession laws, are associated with supplying tobacco to minors, and therefore need to be assessed when trying to understand the complex factors that influence the social supply of tobacco in communities. In the United States, cigarette smoking is the most preventable cause of death, and first use of tobacco almost always occurs during adolescence. There have been a wide variety of methods used to address the problem of smoking among youth. This study employed a multilevel random-effects regression analyses to model Level-1 (individual and social) and Level-2 (environmental) correlates of supplying tobacco to minors. The study used the first wave of data collected from a larger 5-year intervention study. Twenty-four randomly selected towns in northern and central Illinois provided baseline data. Tables, references