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Health Education Research Advance Access published online on July 26, 2007
Health Education Research, doi:10.1093/her/cym027
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Starting young? Children's experiences of trying smoking during pre-adolescence

Beth Milton1,*, SE Woods2, L Dugdill3, L Porcellato4 and RJ Springett2

1 Division of Public Health, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3GB, UK
2 Institute for Health, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool L3 2AB, UK
3 School of Community, Health Sciences and Social Care, University of Salford, Salford M6 6PU, UK
4 Institute of Public Health Research and Policy, University of Salford, Salford M5 4QA, UK

Correspondence to: * Correspondence to: B. Milton. E-mail: bmilton{at}liverpool.ac.uk

Although the risks smoking poses to health are now well known, many young people continue to take up the habit. While numerous cross-sectional studies of adolescents have identified correlates of smoking initiation, much less prospective, longitudinal research has been conducted with young children to gather their accounts of early experiences of smoking, and this study fills that significant gap. Quantitative and qualitative data, collected using questionnaires, interviews and focus groups, are presented from the pre-adolescent phase of the Liverpool Longitudinal Study of Smoking. By age 11, 27% of the cohort had tried smoking, 13% had smoked repeatedly and 3% were smoking regularly. Rates of experimentation increased over time. Qualitative data revealed that curiosity and the role of peers were central to children's accounts of early smoking. By pre-adolescence, children are at different stages in their smoking careers, therefore interventions must be targeted to their varied experiences. Current prevention strategies often focus on restricting access to cigarettes, but a broad range of intervention measures is required which take account of the multifactorial nature of smoking onset. To be effective, policies that aim to prevent smoking must be grounded in children's lived experiences.

Received on September 19, 2006; accepted on April 25, 2007


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