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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Jocelyn C Pan, MPH, ScD, Department of Health and Social Behavior, Harvard University, 677 Huntington Ave, 7th Floor, Boston, MA 02115, 617-782-5531, jpan@post.harvard.edu and Dolores Acevedo-Garcia, PhD, School of Public Health, Dept of Society, Human Development & Health, Harvard University, Kresge Building, 7th Floor, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115.
Some empirical evidence suggests that more “acculturated” immigrants face an increased risk of smoking.Attempts to understand how the acculturation process plays in an immigrant youth’s adoption of tobacco use have typically operationalized acculturation in terms of country of birth, the length of residence in the US, language preference at home and English proficiency. However, there has been limited qualitative research to explore in depth why the process of acculturation/assimilation may increase the risk of smoking and how contextual factors may influence smoking imitation. The segmented assimilation theory postulates that the assimilation process and adaptation outcomes of immigrant children are influenced not only by individual level factors, but also by contextual factors such as parent-child relationships, racial discrimination, urban subcultures and labor market prospects. To our knowledge, our work is the first to apply the segmented assimilation theory to understand the pathways through which the assimilation process may influence smoking behavior among teenage immigrants. We conducted a series of thirty-two in- depth interviews and four focus groups with Asian immigrant youth in Boston’s Chinatown. The segmented assimilation framework guided our interview topics. Our findings discuss how familial ties, identity issues, Asian youth subculture, peer group dynamics and socioeconomic backgrounds interact to heighten the risk of smoking among immigrant youth. Our findings have important implications for health education strategies targeted at preventing smoking among immigrant youth.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Immigrants, Smoking
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.