Does smoking affect schooling? Evidence from teenagers in rural China

Exploring the intergenerational persistence of health behaviour: an empirical study of smoking from China

“…While the estimated prevalence of lifetime smoking ranged between 39% and 46% for adolescent males in the period 1981–2010, it rose steadily from 2% to 19% for adolescent females during the same period [14]. In additional to the health hazards, adolescent smoking is highly associated with low learning productivity, as well as the number of other health risk behaviours in which these young adolescents had engaged [15, 16]. Parental smoking might be linked with adolescent smoking through many channels.…”

New knowledge on children and young people: A Synthesis of Evidence from the ESRC-DFID Joint Fund for Poverty Alleviation Research

“…They find parental smoking has significant impacts on the probability and intensity of youth smoking. Zhao et al (2012) find smoking one cigarette a day during adolescence can lower students' scores on mathematics tests by about 0.08 standard deviations, though it is not associated with effects on Chinese test scores or total years of schooling. Although some qualitative studies were undertaken alongside the Gansu Survey, this particular study did not have qualitative data to draw on, which might have illuminated the processes by which smoking affects particular educational outcomes.…”

“…In some cases, girls and young women had been told by parents or boyfriends that they must terminate their pregnancy; in others, it was the girl's or young women's decision. Zhao et al (2010;, drawing on the Gansu Survey of Children and Families, explore an issue both of strong relevance in the particular context to which it relates and of wider significance given health transitions in which non-communicable diseases are becoming more significant: adolescent smoking. They find parental smoking has significant impacts on the probability and intensity of youth smoking.…”

“…The authors state that these differences in the impact of parental migration on cognitive and non-cognitive skill development highlight the importance of expanding the number of indicators used to measure child development. Zhao, M, Konishi, Y and Glewwe, P (2010) This paper explores the effect of youth smoking on educational outcomes. Using household survey data from rural China, the research uses counts of registered alcohol vendors and a food price index as instrumental variables.…”

Early Smoking, Education, and Labor Market Performance

“…Smoking negatively affects educational attainment if it is initiated early (Zhao et al 2012); thus, indirectly deteriorates labor market performance through education. Even though the majority of the documented adverse health effects of smoking is observed in the long term, smoking may have adverse immediate health consequences on young people; if so, early smoking affects education.…”