Examining contextual settings to explain gender differences in cigarette and alcohol use among Asian immigrants : work, hospitality venues, and household settings

Among Asian immigrants to the U.S., less acculturated males but more acculturated females report higher present and predicted future rates of smoking. These findings were based on cross-sectional data. Our longitudinal study among Koreans in California (CA) tested the hypothesis that increased acculturation to the CA environment would increase social acceptability to smoke among females but simultaneously apply social pressure against smoking among males. Our findings revealed that increased acculturation was not statistically related to uptake in household smoking bans or changes to smoking and quitting rates. However, increased years in CA significantly increased implementation of complete household smoking bans among both genders, significantly reduced smoking and increased quitting among Korean males and positively increased smoking, but not significantly in multivariate analyses, among Korean females. Conclusions drawn from these and other studies suggest the need to study the specific social contingencies that are operating and how these differ between the genders to produce the divergent trajectories of smoking prevalence. This dissertation will examine three separate, contextual settings that may influence smoking prevalence and exposure among Asian immigrants in California. The three settings include the work environment, the hospitality venues of restaurant and bars, and the dynamic household and employment contingencies. Data were gathered from different funding sources, at different time points and include different Asian immigrants. However, data collection methodologies were similar across all studies. Telephone calls were conducted with adults in California who had an Asian surname. The first dataset was collected in 2001-2003 and resulted in a representative sample of 2,830 Koreans in California age 18 and older. This sample was re- interviewed in 2005-2006 and 2007-200913. During the 2005- 2006 wave, a second representative sample (n=2,085) of Koreans was collected in parallel to the first sample and was also re-interviewed in 2007-2009. In 2010, a new study was funded to generate two new representative samples of adults age 21 and over in California who immigrated from either Korea or China/Taiwan. Data collection is currently in progress with 1,739 interviews completed to dat