For years researchers have confirmed that minority teens have consistently higher rates of tobacco usage than non-minority teens. On the whole, the imbalance between teens of different ethnicities as it relates to smoking has been attributed to socioeconomic factors. That being the case, the majority of supplemental research has focused on economic inhibitors and regional limitations to attempt to pinpoint the specific causes that increase a minority teens’ risk for falling into the tobacco trap.

While the rest of the research world continued mapping the highest risk areas for minority teen smoking rates, a few clever researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine decided to slow things down a bit and try to understand the problem on a simpler level. For the first time, they took a look at smoking rates in minority teens by gender. The results were surprising.

The study showed a fascinating tendency: perceived prejudice directly affects minority teen smoking habits.

For a product that is said to provide "calming" effects to the user, it’s not surprising that people (even teens) would turn to smoking during times of high stress; in this case, bigotry, racism, prejudice, etc. What is surprising though, is the affect that prejudice has on boys’ smoking as compared to girls’.

Male minority teens increase the amount they smoke when they perceive discrimination, whereas females decrease the amount they smoke when experiencing the same feelings. Initial speculations suggest that the difference arises as a result of where teens tend to spend their time. Girls, being the more social gender, are assumed to turn to friends and family during times of hardship, while boys are more likely to deal with emotional conflict alone – and their social lives reflect their coping skills during distress.

While still in the early stages of follow up, researchers plan to track minority teen smokers’ social lives and see where they like to hang out. Although unconfirmed, one idea being considered to help track is using GPS devices in teen cell phones to log where minority teens go in their free time.

You can read more about this fascinating research here.

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