The Roles Of Communication, Risk Perceptions, And Emotions In Chinese Americans’ Smoking Decisions
Open Access
- Author:
- Lu, Yu
- Graduate Program:
- Communication Arts and Sciences
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 14, 2015
- Committee Members:
- Michael L Hecht, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Michael L Hecht, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Roxanne Louise Parrott, Committee Member
Rachel Annette Smith, Committee Member
Pui Wa Lei, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Chinese Americans
Smoking Decisions
Communication
Risk Perceptions
Emotions - Abstract:
- Chinese Americans suffer from high mortality from cigarette smoking. Little is known, however, about the decisions that lead to these unhealthy behaviors. This dissertation aimed to conduct a formative research as the first step to develop a smoking intervention program for this population. The research consists of two phases. First, a qualitative, grounded theory study was conducted through fifty-four individual interviews and three focus groups with Chinese Americans of different smoking statuses in Atlanta, Georgia. Many Chinese Americans reported changing their smoking behaviors after immigration, with their social environment after immigration playing a key role. The Transtheoretical Model (TTM) emerged as the theoretical framework to describe various smoking decisions. The participants were thus categorized into seven groups (six stages of change and never smokers) and perceptions of smoking risks and emotions associated with smoking were identified as the key factors that differentiate these varied smoking decisions. Study Two collected survey data to further validate the qualitative findings. The goal of the study was to first, test if TTM stages apply with Chinese American population, second, test the effects of covariates on the class memberships, and third, test a mediation model of nonsmokers’ responses to secondhand smoke. Latent class analysis with 111 ever smokers identified four subgroups of ever smokers: non-quitter, planner, actor, and maintainer. Perceived smoking harms, risk perception, worry, fear, social norms, acculturation, and communication frequency were found to be significant covariates. Next, a structural equation model was tested with 296 nonsmokers to identify factors that affect their responses to secondhand smoke. It was found that perceived risk and disgust mediated the effects of perceived smoking harms and social norms on the decision to confront a smoker for secondhand smoke. Worry and fear, on the other hand, mediated the effects of perceived smoking harms and social norms on the decision to avoid a secondhand smoke situation. Overall, the findings provide one explanation for the diverse smoking behaviors observed of Chinese Americans and have important theoretical and practical implications.