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Environmental
Contexts of Smoking for Southeast Asians
Principal Investigator:
Juliet P. Lee, Ph.D.
The
proposed study aims to investigate the relationship between
the social environment and smoking among Southeast Asians
in California urban areas. Of U.S. states, California is home
to the largest number of Southeast Asians. Although as many
as 35-70% of Southeast Asians in the U.S. may smoke, there
is evidence that smoking decreases among this population with
increasing time in the U.S. Changes in immigrants’ tobacco
use have been attributed to “acculturation.” Acculturation
is a type of social change wherein people experience large-scale
changes in values, beliefs and practices resulting from the
meeting of two or more differing worldviews. For immigrants,
these changes are usually understood to result from living
in a different social environment. The precise relationship
between changes in socio-cultural context and changes in tobacco
use, however, remains unclear. This study proposes that tobacco
use is a social practice, that changes in tobacco use reflect
immigrants’ changing relationship to their social environment,
and that these relationships vary by generation and gender.
Through in-depth interviews with 120 male and female Laotians
and Cambodians in the San Francisco Bay Area representing
two generations in the U.S., together with ethnographic observations
of Southeast Asian public gatherings, the proposed three-year
study will specifically investigate:
- Inter-generational
variation in the social meanings of smoking.
The study will compare the social meaning of smoking for
first and second generation Southeast Asians and for males
and females by identifying categories such as ethnic identity,
educational achievement, life aspirations, gender identity,
and peer and family relations, and how these relate to smoking.
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Inter-generational variation in knowledge of and
attitudes towards smoking.
The study will assess Southeast Asians’ awareness
of and attitudes towards smoking, such as: health risks
related to smoking; the role of tobacco use in family, peer,
school and neighborhood environments; environmental tobacco
control policies such as workplace and school smoking restrictions;
and second-hand smoke. These attitudes will then be compared
by generation and gender.
- Inter-generational
variation in smoking behaviors.
The proposed study will identify variations in smoking practices
which may result from the different socio-cultural environments
within which first and second generation Southeast Asians
develop smoking habits. Potential variations may occur in
relation to age of onset; social contexts of tobacco use;
attempts to quit smoking; female smoking; smoking in public;
and home smoking policies.
As
such, the study addresses TRDRP research priorities in several
areas: 1) The study will gather information on the smoking
practices of understudied populations, in this case four subgroups
of Southeast Asians for whom there is little to no information:
Laotians, Cambodians, second-generation youth and women; 2)
The study addresses gender-based differences in smoking by
comparing tobacco use for Southeast Asian women and men; 3)
The study addresses environmental factors that influence the
initiation of tobacco use. The findings derived from this
study may result in the design of tobacco prevention programs
which more closely address young Southeast Asians’ social
realities, as well as enhanced support for cessation and harm
reduction efforts among this underserved California population.
The study may additionally contribute to a better understanding
of the relationship between smoking and social change processes
for U.S. immigrants in general.
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