Understanding the Links between Education and Smoking

• In Event: 555 - Regular Session. Health Policy

Abstract

This study extends the theoretical and empirical literature on the relationship between education and smoking to include the important life course links between experiences from adolescence and outcomes in adulthood. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, I use characteristics from the teenage years, including school experiences and future expectations measured before the start of smoking regularly to predict smoking at ages 25 to 29. The results show that school policies, peers, and youths’ mortality expectations predict adult smoking but that college aspirations and analytical skills do not. I also show that smoking status at age 16 predicts both completed education and adult smoking, controlling for an extensive set of covariates. Overall, the results suggest that the relationship between education and smoking is unlikely to be causal. Rather, it is likely produced by non-cognitive skills and characteristics from early childhood, which determine both education and decisions about smoking.

Author

• Vida Maralani, Yale University