Smoking beliefs across genders, a comparative analysis of seven European countries
(2019) BMC Public Health — Vol. 19, n° 1 (2019)
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- Authors
Grard, Adeline 
- Abstract
- Background: Most European countries have seen a decrease in the prevalence of adolescent smoking. This decrease has, however, been patterned by gender. Girls smoking rates have now overtaken boys’ in many European countries. Yet, both genders may not share the same smoking beliefs, which could explain differences between the genders in smoking prevalence. We describe gender differences in smoking beliefs and investigate variations between countries along with their gender context. Methods: In 2016, we conducted the SILNE R study in 55 schools located in seven European countries: Belgium, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, Finland, Ireland and Germany. We surveyed 12 979 students of 14-16 years old (48.5% of girls). We classified smoking beliefs into four categories: positive individual, positive social, negative individual and negative social beliefs. We expected girls to score higher on 3 last categories, and we hypothesized that countries with a more gender-equal culture would have less gender difference in beliefs about smoking. Results: One out of two smoking beliefs differed significantly between genders. Negative social beliefs were more common in girls, while beliefs about the dating-related aspects of smoking, were more common in boys. We identified Germany and Belgium as the only countries with no gender differences in any of the belief scales. No correlation was found, however, between these scales and the GINI index of gender inequalities. Conclusions: In some countries, gender-specific interventions might be implemented, however two opposing strategies might be used, depending on whether such programs are addressed to boys or to girls.
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Citations
Grard, A., Schreuders, M., Alves, J., Kinnunen, J. M., Richter, M., Federico, B., Kunst, A., Clancy, L., & Lorant, V. (2019). Smoking beliefs across genders, a comparative analysis of seven European countries. BMC Public Health, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7700-6 (Original work published 2019)