Best way to quit smoking? Have a friend do it first

by Angie Felton (Subscribe to Angie Felton's posts) May 22nd 2008 4:00PM

Categories: Teens & tweens, Health & Safety, In The News

Kids are warned not to give in to peer pressure, but peer pressure can also be a very GOOD thing!

A team of researchers found evidence that although kids who hang out with smokers are more likely to become smokers themselves, if someone stops smoking, that behavior pattern will also spread throughout the group and in social circles far beyond that one.

"Your smoking behavior depends upon not just the smoking behavior of the people you know, but also the people who they know" and so on, said Dr. Nicholas Christakis, a medical sociologist at Harvard Medical School and lead author of the new report.
The reason? Not following the group results in the individual being pushed from inner circle to the outer edges and the individual is faced with a choice: either conforming to retain their place or to leave the group.

This study sounds like a combination of "Animal Planet" and the The Kevin Bacon game, but it's yet another reason to keep tabs on your child's social circle and to encourage them to make good decisions. Not only does it take a village to raise a child, that child can also affect the whole village!

Source

Comments (0)