School-Class Co-Ethnic and Immigrant Density and Current Smoking among Immigrant Adolescents

Matthias Robert Kern, Andreas Heinz and Helmut Erich Willems
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Matthias Robert Kern: Department of Social Sciences, University of Luxembourg, 4366 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
Andreas Heinz: Department of Social Sciences, University of Luxembourg, 4366 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
Helmut Erich Willems: Department of Social Sciences, University of Luxembourg, 4366 Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 2, 1-14

Abstract: Although the school-class is known to be an important setting for adolescent risk behavior, little is known about how the ethnic composition of a school-class impacts substance use among pupils with a migration background. Moreover, the few existing studies do not distinguish between co-ethnic density (i.e., the share of immigrants belonging to one’s own ethnic group) and immigrant density (the share of all immigrants). This is all the more surprising since a high co-ethnic density can be expected to protect against substance use by increasing levels of social support and decreasing acculturative stress, whereas a high immigrant density can be expected to do the opposite by facilitating inter-ethnic conflict and identity threat. This study analyses how co-ethnic density and immigrant density are correlated with smoking among pupils of Portuguese origin in Luxembourg. A multi-level analysis is used to analyze data from the Luxembourg Health Behavior in School-Aged Children study ( N = 4268 pupils from 283 classes). High levels of co-ethnic density reduced current smoking. In contrast, high levels of immigrant density increased it. Thus, in research on the health of migrants, the distinction between co-ethnic density and immigrant density should be taken into account, as both may have opposite effects.

Keywords: migration; smoking; substance use; adolescence; ethnic density; ethnic composition; school-class; multilevel analysis; HBSC; acculturative stress (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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