The smoking behavior of friends is a major risk factor for adolescent smoking uptake. To explore the social context of smoking experimentation and consolidation with a particular focus on friends, the authors interviewed both members of 14 young adult identical twin pairs who were discordant for smoking. The different smoking status of twins was connected to their different friendship groups and development of different identities. Smoking respondents gravitated to the behaviors and images of the peer group who smoked. Many nonsmokers felt strong pressure from their peers not to smoke and spoke about how the images conveyed by smoking were inconsistent with their peer group’s image. Adolescents and young adults are aware of the messages that smoking can convey to others and exploit these images to construct a social identity.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	adolescence; peer group; smoking; twins
Research Division:	Human Society
Research Group:	Sociology
Research Field:	Sociological methodology and research methods
Objective Division:	Health
Objective Group:	Public health (excl. specific population health)
Objective Field:	Public health (excl. specific population health) not elsewhere classified
UTAS Author:	McLeod, K (Dr Kim McLeod)
ID Code:	88667
Year Published:	2008
Web of Science® Times Cited:	4
Deposited By:	School of Social Sciences
Deposited On:	2014-02-12
Last Modified:	2014-10-07
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