Childhood experiences provide an explanation as to why people with higher education are less likely to take up smoking.
Previous studies have established that a person's level of education is a significant factor in determining whether one starts smoking or not. It has been observed that people with higher education are less likely to take up smoking, though there's been no clarity as to why this happens.
In a new study, Yale University researchers found that childhood experiences and families children are raised in provide a good explanation of this mechanism. The researchers analyzed data collected over 14 years to link the smoking and educational histories of adults aged 26 to 29 to their experiences in adolescence.
Researchers found that school policies, peers, and expectations about the future that the children are subjected to at ages 13 to 15 determine whether they will start smoking later in life.
"This means that in order to reduce educational inequalities in smoking, we have to figure out exactly which characteristics before age 12 predict that a child will both not take up smoking and stay committed to school," lead author Vida Maralani, assistant professor of sociology at Yale, said in a press statement.
The authors also debunked previous theories that suggest college aspirations and analytical skills influence the link between smoking and education in adulthood. Instead, families in which kids grow up and children's non-cognitive skills may matter far more than realized in explaining the robust association between education and smoking in adulthood, the researchers explained.
"Overall, educational inequalities in adult smoking are better understood as a bundling of advantageous statuses that develops in childhood, rather than the effect of education producing better health," Maralani said.
The study was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars program and findings were published online in the journal Social Science Research.
