Youth Tobacco Use and How to Combat It

According to the CDC, tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Each year, roughly 443,000 deaths in the United States can be attributed to smoking cigarettes. So the question here is why do people start smoking or chewing tobacco when they know it is bad for them?  For the older population, a lot of them did not know that tobacco was harmful to them when they started to smoke or chew. They grew up in a time where smoking or chewing tobacco was widely accepted, and promoted heavily. It was not until they were heavily addicted to smoking or chewing that they found out how bad tobacco use really is. So that is one explanation as to why the older population in the United States smokes, but it does not explain why today, an estimated 850 youth start smoking cigarettes on a daily basis everyday.

In 2009, 17.2% of high school students and 5.2% of middle school students were current cigarette smokers. On an average day in the United States, 3,450 people between the ages of 12 and 17 smoke a cigarette for the first time. Why is this happening? And how is this happening? There are a lot of factors associated with youth tobacco use. Low self-esteem and low academic achievement are common signs seen with youth tobacco users. When a child has low self-esteem, they will look for ways to raise it, and often do not pick the best ways of going about raising it. Instead of choosing a positive way to raise their self-esteem, an example being achieving better grades in school, they go for the negative option, such as starting to smoke or chew tobacco.

Parents and socioeconomic status are other big factors that contribute to youth tobacco use. Parents that smoke will often have children that smoke. Children learn from watching others and then repeating what others do. If children see their parents smoking or chewing, they are more likely to grow up thinking tobacco use is normal and fine because their parents use tobacco and they are normal and fine. This “normal and fine” outlook about tobacco use will make children want to try tobacco products more because in their mind they are thinking “What harm could come from trying it?” Children can also more easily get their hands on tobacco products when their parents smoke or chew. All they have to do is take cigarettes or chew from their parent's stash.

Socioeconomic status is a big risk factor because it is usually correlated with levels of education. Typically, the less educated you are, the lower your socioeconomic status is. People with lower socioeconomic statuses tend to start smoking or chewing tobacco more so than people with high socioeconomic statuses because they have not had that continuing education about the effects of tobacco use. So, when people with low socioeconomic statuses have children, they do not educate their children about tobacco use in the most efficient way because they themselves are not as educated on the topic. What happens then is that these children will more than likely start smoking or chewing and the vicious cycle will continue.

So, how can we put a stop to youth tobacco use? For starters, DO NOT smoke or chew around children. Setting a good example for children is key to helping them be successful and healthy in life.  Also, by not having tobacco products around children, you make it a lot harder for them to get their hands on cigarettes or chew and try it out.

Tobacco education programs in schools are also beneficial in helping keep youth from using tobacco. The more education they have on tobacco, the more likely they will resist tobacco when they are confronted with it in the future. Better decisions can be made about tobacco when you all the information on it. By keeping children from starting to smoke or chew, we can break the cycle and create a healthier nation.

Rachel Van Cleave

Youth and tobacoo use. (2011, July 11). Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/youth_data/tobacco_use/index.htm