‘They are not really bothered, as long as they earn the money’ – a qualitative study of young people’s sources of cigarettes

Authors and presenters:
Jude Robinson
Senior Lecturer, University of Liverpool, UK

Amanda Amos
Professor of Health Promotion, Centre for Population Health Sciences, University of Edinburgh, UK

Abstract
Despite targeted public health interventions throughout England in health care, community and school settings, an estimated 6% of young people aged 11 – 15 years are regular smokers, with girls more likely to smoke than boys. Drawing on focus group and some observational data with 85 young people aged 12 – 15 years of age living in disadvantaged areas of the Midlands, England, we explore how young people access cigarettes, and how and why they ‘became smokers’. While young people did use social sources to access cigarettes, most obtained cigarettes from smaller local shops. Both smoking and non-smoking participants knew which shops sold to underage children and what strategies to employ, suggesting a widespread acceptance of underage sales in some communities. Some young people bought directly from retailers, reporting that the retailers did not ask for ID, and individual cigarettes were available for purchase in schools and smoking took place on some school grounds. As some young people had been smoking for a number of years, and some had made quit attempts, we reflect on the importance of proxy sales for young people in terms of smoking uptake and the current (lack of) provision of specialist smoking cessation advice for young people.

Source of funding: Central England Trading Standards Authorities (CEnTSA)

Declaration of interest: none

About the presenters
Jude Robinson is a social anthropologist working as a Senior Lecturer in Health Sciences and Deputy Director of the Health and Community Care Research Unit at the University of Liverpool. She has a research interest in the health behaviours of women with families in urban settings. Her work has focused on using depth research methods to understand why parents and carers of young children still expose children to smoke in their homes. Most recently she has explored young people’s smoking and is currently developing a clinician-led intervention to be delivered to parents and carers at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool.

Amanda Amos is Professor of Health Promotion and Head of Public Health Sciences at Edinburgh University. She has been teaching and researching health promotion for over 20 years. Her main area of research is smoking and tobacco control. This has focused on a broad range of smoking issues at individual, community and societal level including the impact of tobacco control policy and interventions. Amanda is a member of the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies, the Scottish Ministerial Working Group on Tobacco Control, the Board of the international Network of Women Against Tobacco (Europe)