Journal
QUALITATIVE HEALTH RESEARCH
Volume 31, Issue 14, Pages 2692-2705Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC
DOI: 10.1177/10497323211044465
Keywords
adolescents; smoking; access; Bourdieu; qualitative; focus groups; Europe
Categories
Funding
- European Commission [635056]
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The study found that adolescents access tobacco through various means, utilizing different personal capitals, with culture and social habits playing a key role. In order to effectively limit adolescent access to tobacco, multi-pronged, culturally informed approaches that consider the lived experiences of adolescent smokers are more likely to succeed.
Despite efforts to reduce adolescent smoking via minimum age-of-sale legislation, many young people continue to access tobacco through a mix of social and commercial sources. Little is known about the roles of habitus, capital, and social topographies in shaping under-age access to tobacco. This article draws on Bourdieu's theory of practice and data generated from 56 focus groups with 14- to 19-year-olds across seven European cities to answer the question via what sources and by what means do adolescents obtain tobacco? We find that adolescents use a range of personal capitals (social, cultural, and economic) to access tobacco, with the specific constitution and deployment of these capitals varying according to the regularities of different fields. Since adolescents access tobacco via culturally embedded practices, attempts to curtail this access are more likely to be effective if they are multi-pronged, culturally informed, and attuned to the lived experiences of adolescent smokers.
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