Evening the Odds
At some point in her journey through adolescence, a young women you care about is likely to try smoking. She may drop out of physical activity at the same time.
A closer look at the seemingly separate choices of smoking and not participating in physical activity reveals some obvious similarities.
Young women who smoke and drop out of physical activity are more likely to have low social status, stressful living conditions, negative body images and low self-esteem than young women who choose to remain active and smoke free.
Indeed, a feminist analysis of smoking behaviour and nonparticipation in physical activity suggests that efforts to even the odds against young women and to improve their life circumstances are essential to addressing both behaviours. Thus is why active collaboration among advocates for sport and active living, women's health and tobacco control is so important.
It is time for parents and leaders in the active living and sport world to take action against tobacco. It is also time to seriously explore how physical activity might serve as a viable alternative to smoking in young women's lives.
Taking action on tobacco is one way we can show how much we care about our daughters, students, athletes and participants. It is also a way that we can work together to address the underlying social and political issues that lead young women to abandon physical activity and take up smoking in the first place.
Is Physical Activity a Viable Alternative to Smoking?
Physical activity has the potential to be a healthy and enjoyable alternative to smoking that meets young women's immediate needs.
Perceived Benefits of Smoking
Known Benefits of Physical Activity
Many teen women see smoking as a way to relax and deal with stress
Physical activity can help buffer the effects of stress anxiety and depression.
Smoking is viewed as a way to make friends and be accepted by yours peers.
Group activities and team sports offer the chance to make friends and develop meaningful relationships with peers and caring adults.
Smoking is seen as a way to gain independence from parents and to rebel against social pressures to be feminine, perfect and nice.
Sports and activities such as skating, rock and wall climbing, soccer, hockey, rowing, windsurfing and snowboarding offer a healthy way to rebel against social pressures to assume a passive female role.
Disadvantaged teen women may see cigarettes as a status symbol. Cigarettes provide a substitute for a lack of material possessions and make them feel less deprived.
Membership on a sport team or in a sports club offers status. Most teenagers perceive athletes to be successful and well liked. Participation in high school athletics may be particularly helpful to improving the status of teenagers girls from minority groups.
Smoking is perceived as an appropriate way to control weight.
Regular physical activity is essential to maintaining a healthy weight.
Two Other Benefits of Physical Activity Are:
The positive influence of role modeling by peer athletes, experiencing female athletes, coaches, teachers and activity leaders.
The positive influence on self-esteem of participation in physical activity and sport.
Why Do Adolescent Women Smoke
Adolescent women use smoking to:
deal with stress and negative emotions and to cope with difficult life circumstances
gain status or acceptance with peers
be like the glamorous, thin, successful and seductive images they see in movies, music videos and advertising
control their weight
rebel against societal pressures to be feminine, perfect and nice all the time.
Taking Action
Smoking, like the choice to be physically active, is the result of a complex mix of broad environmental factors, social pressures and individual experiences. Parents, teachers, coaches and leaders can have an important influence at the individual level. But we must also work together to change inequities in the social and political environments that affect young women's choices.
The following strategies address the need to make physical activity a relevant alternative for young women and to reduce smoking with action in three areas: Prevention, Protection and Cessation.
Prevention Strategies for Parents, Coaches, Teachers, Leaders and Organizations
Organize noncompetitive or nontraditional activities to attract girls who do not normally participate and may be at high risk for smoking.
Offer activity programs that build young women's self-esteem, self-empowerment, independence and stress management skills.
Ask young women what kinds of activities they would like to try. Offer a broad range of activities or contract local programs and clubs that are willing to introduce adolescent women to new activities, e.g. orienteering, hiking, climbing, archery, etc.
Boycott sporting events with tobacco sponsorship. Encourage young women to join you in protesting tobacco sponsorships.
Insist that young women get their fair share of facilities and equipment. Ask for qualified instructors to ensure that they learn the skills they will need to lead an active lifestyle in the future.
Promote the immediate benefits of physical activity (they are the same as the perceived benefits of smoking). Counter the tobacco industry's use of of sporting images to associate smoking with independence and adventure.
Encourage female role models in all aspects of sport and active living to speak out against smoking and the exploitation tactics of the tobacco industry.
Include relevant information on smoking in sport and active living newsletters and promotional material.
Be a positive role model by staying active and refraining from smoking. If you do smoke, talk about your addiction and your efforts to quite.
Remove any emphasis on weight control and "ideal" body sculpting in Physical education, sport and recreational activities. Encourage healthy eating, positive body image and enjoyable physical activity at home, at school and in the community.
Advocate woman-centred interventions in smoking prevention and physical activity promotion as part of a comprehensive school health program.
Ensure that school health curricula deal with and link the issues of body image, self-esteem, eating disorders, smoking and physical activity.
Support school programs in media literacy that show adolescent women how the tobacco and other industries exploit women and children. Help young women decode ads at home.
Support increased tobacco taxation and advocate strict penalties for those who sell tobacco to minors.
Work with health and women's groups on this issue. Talk to them about the potential of active living and sport to address smoking. Seek their support on issues such as quality, daily physical education and gender equity.
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For more information on this topic and a copy of the phamphlet "Evening the Odds", contact CAAWS at: caaws@caaws.ca
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