IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v67y2008i3p420-430.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Smoking and the emergence of a stigmatized social status

Author

Listed:
  • Stuber, Jennifer
  • Galea, Sandro
  • Link, Bruce G.

Abstract

An increase in the social unacceptability of smoking has dramatically decreased tobacco use in the USA. However, how policies (e.g., smoke free air laws) and social factors (e.g., social norms) drive the social unacceptability of tobacco use are not well understood. New research suggests that the stigmatization of smokers is an unrecognized force in the tobacco epidemic and could be one such mechanism. Thus, it is important to investigate the sources of smoker-related stigmatization as perceived by current and former smokers. In this study, we draw on the broader literature about stigma formation in the context of the tobacco epidemic and examine the role of attribution, fear, tobacco control policies, power and social norms in the formation of smoker-related stigma. We test hypotheses about the determinants of stigma using a population-based sample of 816 current and former smokers in New York City. The results show that perceptions of individual attributions for smoking behavior and fear about the health consequences of second hand smoke are important influences on smoker-related stigmatization. Structural forms of discrimination perpetrated against smokers and former smokers (e.g., company policies against hiring smokers) are also related to smoker-related stigma. Respondents with more education perceive more smoker-related stigma than respondents with less education and, Black and Latino respondents perceive less smoker-related stigma than White respondents. Social norms, specifically family and friends' expressed disapproval of smoking, contribute to the formation of smoker-related stigma. These findings suggest important points of leverage to harness the powerful role of stigma in the smoking epidemic and raise concerns about the possible role of stigma in the production of smoking disparities.

Suggested Citation

  • Stuber, Jennifer & Galea, Sandro & Link, Bruce G., 2008. "Smoking and the emergence of a stigmatized social status," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 420-430, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:67:y:2008:i:3:p:420-430
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(08)00143-3
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Schneider, Anne & Ingram, Helen, 1993. "Social Construction of Target Populations: Implications for Politics and Policy," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 87(2), pages 334-347, June.
    2. Herek, G.M. & Capitanio, J.P. & Widaman, K.F., 2002. "HIV-related stigma and knowledge in the United States: Prevalence and trends, 1991-1999," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 92(3), pages 371-377.
    3. Alamar, Benjamin & Glantz, Stanton A, 2006. "Effect of increased social unacceptability of cigarette smoking on reduction in cigarette consumption," University of California at San Francisco, Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education qt605791kz, Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, UC San Francisco.
    4. Novotny, T.E. & Warner, K.E. & Kendrick, J.S. & Remington, P.L., 1988. "Smoking by blacks and whites: Socioeconomic and demographic differences," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 78(9), pages 1187-1189.
    5. Alamar, B. & Glantz, S.A., 2006. "Effect of increased social unacceptability of cigarette smoking on reduction in cigarette consumption," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 96(8), pages 1359-1363.
    6. Royce, J.M. & Hymowitz, N. & Corbett, K. & Hartwell, T.D. & Orlandi, M.A., 1993. "Smoking cessation factors among African Americans and Whites," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 83(2), pages 220-226.
    7. Barbeau, E.M. & Krieger, N. & Soobader, M.-J., 2004. "Erratum: Working class matters: Socioeconomic disadvantage, race/ethnicity, gender, and smoking in NHIS 2000 (American Journal of Public Health (2004) 94 (296-278))," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 94(8), pages 1295-1295.
    8. Escobedo, L.G. & Peddicord, J.P., 1996. "Smoking prevalence in US birth cohorts: The influence of gender and education," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 86(2), pages 231-236.
    9. Barbeau, E.M. & Krieger, N. & Soobader, M.-J., 2004. "Working Class Matters: Socioeconomic Disadvantage, Race/Ethnicity, Gender, and Smoking in NHIS 2000," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 94(2), pages 269-278.
    10. Fred C. Pampel, 2006. "Socioeconomic Distinction, Cultural Tastes, and Cigarette Smoking," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 87(1), pages 19-35, March.
    11. Link, B.G. & Phelan, J.C. & Bresnahan, M. & Stueve, A. & Pescosolido, B.A., 1999. "Public conceptions of mental illness: Labels, causes, dangerousness, and social distance," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 89(9), pages 1328-1333.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Okechukwu, Cassandra & Bacic, Janine & Cheng, Kai-Wen & Catalano, Ralph, 2012. "Smoking among construction workers: The nonlinear influence of the economy, cigarette prices, and antismoking sentiment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(8), pages 1379-1386.
    2. Maryam Dilmaghani, 2022. "The link between smoking, drinking and wages: Health, workplace social capital or discrimination?," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 160-183, March.
    3. Jessica Ho & Irma Elo, 2013. "The Contribution of Smoking to Black-White Differences in U.S. Mortality," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(2), pages 545-568, April.
    4. Kelly, Brian C. & Vuolo, Mike & Frizzell, Laura C. & Hernandez, Elaine M., 2018. "Denormalization, smoke-free air policy, and tobacco use among young adults," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 70-77.
    5. Corinne Reczek & Hui Liu & Dustin Brown, 2014. "Cigarette Smoking in Same-Sex and Different-Sex Unions: The Role of Socioeconomic and Psychological Factors," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 33(4), pages 527-551, August.
    6. Nystedt, Paul, 2006. "Marital life course events and smoking behaviour in Sweden 1980-2000," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(6), pages 1427-1442, March.
    7. Dinno, Alexis & Glantz, Stanton, 2009. "Tobacco control policies are egalitarian: A vulnerabilities perspective on clean indoor air laws, cigarette prices, and tobacco use disparities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(8), pages 1439-1447, April.
    8. Cinzia Novi & Rowena Jacobs & Matteo Migheli, 2020. "Smoking inequality across genders and socio-economic positions. Evidence from Italian data," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 177-203, October.
    9. Fujishiro, Kaori & Xu, Jun & Gong, Fang, 2010. "What does "occupation" represent as an indicator of socioeconomic status?: Exploring occupational prestige and health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(12), pages 2100-2107, December.
    10. Kaytlynn Clemons & David B. Johnson & Amy Kiger & Janice Putnam, 2018. "Decreasing Campus Smoking With Punishments And Social Pressures," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 36(4), pages 629-643, October.
    11. Michael Schreuders & Loekie Klompmaker & Bas van den Putte & Anton E Kunst, 2019. "Adolescent Smoking in Secondary Schools that Have Implemented Smoke-Free Policies: In-Depth Exploration of Shared Smoking Patterns," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-13, June.
    12. Weden, Margaret M & Astone, Nan M & Bishai, David, 2006. "Racial, ethnic, and gender differences in smoking cessation associated with employment and joblessness through young adulthood in the US," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 303-316, January.
    13. Fred Pampel & Justin Denney, 2011. "Cross-National Sources of Health Inequality: Education and Tobacco Use in the World Health Survey," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 48(2), pages 653-674, May.
    14. DeCicca, Philip & Kenkel, Donald & Liu, Feng, 2013. "Excise tax avoidance: The case of state cigarette taxes," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1130-1141.
    15. Nicolas Gérard Vaillant & Christian Ben lakhdar & Thérèse Lebrun, 2011. "On the way of tobacco quitting: A VAR approach," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 31(4), pages 3253-3258.
    16. Aranda Gutierrez, Ana, 2016. "Thank you for (not) smoking : Essays on organizational theory and strategy in a contested industry," Other publications TiSEM ec7e4803-0702-496c-8b36-8, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    17. Read, Jen'nan Ghazal & Gorman, Bridget K., 2006. "Gender inequalities in US adult health: The interplay of race and ethnicity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(5), pages 1045-1065, March.
    18. Muntaner, Carles & Borrell, Carme & Vanroelen, Christophe & Chung, Haejoo & Benach, Joan & Kim, Il Ho & Ng, Edwin, 2010. "Employment relations, social class and health: A review and analysis of conceptual and measurement alternatives," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(12), pages 2130-2140, December.
    19. Bayer, Ronald, 2008. "Stigma and the ethics of public health: Not can we but should we," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 463-472, August.
    20. Harman, Juliet & Graham, Hilary & Francis, Brian & Inskip, Hazel M., 2006. "Socioeconomic gradients in smoking among young women: A British survey," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(11), pages 2791-2800, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:67:y:2008:i:3:p:420-430. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.