‘Kids who smoke think that they can be adults as well’: Children’s smoking and transitions to adulthood

This article aims to explore the ways in which preadolescents associate smoking with transitionsto adulthood, in the context of sociological theories of childhood, using data from theLiverpool Longitudinal Study of Smoking. The research found that at age 9 many of the cohortargued that smoking was more acceptable for adults because they had bigger bodies than children.Some children also suggested that smoking was appropriate for adults because adultswere competent to make important decisions and to balance risks. By age 11, when several ofthe cohort had actually tried smoking, children’s views about the risks smoking posed to theirbodies had altered, and many children were aware of smoking-related disease among adults.The cohort also suggested that some children might take up smoking to demonstrate that theyare ‘grown up’ too. In the UK, legal restrictions on the age of tobacco purchase are reinforcedby social norms that construct smoking as an activity that is only suitable for adults. The goalof legal restrictions that ban the sale of cigarettes to children is to protect their health. Theunintended outcome, however, is that for many young people smoking is a way of demonstratingmaturity and adult status