A new research article from ASPIRE2025 researchers explores the relationship between internet use and smoking in adolescents.
The emergence of low-cost smartphone technology has coincided with major declines in adolescent smoking and other risk behaviours. A popular theory is that young people now socialise digitally, providing fewer opportunities for smoking and other risk behaviours that occur in face to face social situations. This study investigates whether rising internet use contributed to the decline in adolescent smoking between 2012 and 2018 in New Zealand, and explores the association between smoking and different types of internet use (e.g. social media, gaming, doing school work online).