Gender Differences in the Determinants of Smoking

• Published date: 01 July 1994
• Date: 01 July 1994
• Author: Rebecca Pawlak,James DeFronzo
• DOI: 10.1177/002204269402400310
• Subject Matter: Article

The Journal of Drug Issues

24(3),507-516

1994

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN THE

DETERMINANTS OF SMOKING

James

DeFronzo

Rebecca Pawlak

The authors analyzed factors affecting tobacco smoking in a national

sample. Interaction tests revealed that the social bond

of

commitment

inhibited only male smoking, while the bond

of

religiousity deterred only

female smoking. Age negatively affected smoking only among women,

while having been the victim

of

childhood violence promoted smoking only

among men. The findings suggest that anti-smoking campaigns might be

more effective iftailored to gender-specific determinants

of

smoking.

Smoking

tobacco is viewed as both a serious health threat and as a form of

social deviance. After decades

of

anti-smoking campaigns, the proportion of U.S.

residents who smoke is approximately 29% (National Center for Health Statistics

1989). It is estimated that about one thousand Americans die each day from

smoking-related causes (Trebach 1987).

Past studies of gender and drug use have attempted to determine whether men

and women differ in the type and frequency of drug use. Analyses

of

data

available from social surveys and criminal justice sources indicate that illegal use

of and addiction to cocaine and heroin is higher for men than women (National

Institute on Drug Abuse 1986). In general men appear more likely than women to

use drugs for nonmedicinal recreational purposes while women are more likely to

use prescription drugs for ostensibly medical reasons (Colten and Marsh 1984).

For tobacco smoking, however, the gender gap is not large. The percentage of

males who smoke is about 31%while the percentage of females who smoke is

about 27% (National Center for Health Statistics 1989). The persistance of

tobacco smoking among millions of Americans may indicate that there may be a

"hard-core" of tobacco-smoking-prone individuals for whom the techniques of past

anti-smoking efforts were inadequate.

In an attempt to improve understanding of what promotes and also what

inhibits smoking behavior, the present study employed agender-specific

application of the deviance analysis approach pioneered by Sampson and Laub

(1990). These researchers argued that past sociological studies had typically

ignored the potential role of childhood characteristics in the onset of deviance.

Such an oversight could possibly have resulted in a confounding of the effects

actual1y due to childhood factors with those hypothesized for other variables such

James

DeFronzo , Ph. D.• is associate professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut. His research and

writing interests have included criminology, drug use, social movements, gender roles and demography. Rebecca

Pawlak

is a graduate student of sociology at the University of Connecticut whose research and writing interests

include two forthcoming publications on drug use and presentations at the national meetings of the American Society

of Criminology and the American Sociological Association. Send reprint requests to James DeFronzo, Department

of Sociology, U·68, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269.

©Journal

of

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