Family and Peer Influences on Kenyan College Students’ Smoking Beliefs, Attitudes, and Behavior: A Social Learning Perspective

Background: The influence of the interpersonal social environment (e.g., family and peer) on individual smoking decisions is well established in the U.S. However, how it plays out in the Kenyan culture is unclear. This study investigated family and peer influences on Kenyan college students’ smoking beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Specifically, the study tested if participants’ smoking consequence beliefs, cultural norms, subjective norms, attitudes, smoking refusal efficacy, smoking intention, and smoking amount differed by 1) if they had smoking family members or friends; and 2) the communication frequency with their smoking family members or friends.

Methods: Paper-and-pencil questionnaires were administered to 251 college students enrolled in a private university in central Kenya. Participants included 42% female (Mage = 25.2 years, SD = 4.81). Fifty-six percent of the participants had never smoked cigarettes, 18% had experimented with cigarettes, 18% smoked occasionally, 4% smoked regularly, and 3% had quit smoking.

Results: Kenyan college students who had smoking family members (79%) or friends (81%) reported more positive smoking subjective norms (t = 3.89, p < .001; t = 2.42, p < .05), lower smoking refusal efficacy (t = 2.59, p < .05; t = 3.96, p < .001), higher smoking intention (t = 8.85, p < .001; t = 5.50, p < .001), and larger smoking amount (t = 6.76, p < .001; t = 4.01, p < .001), relative to their counterparts. More positive attitudes were identified among those having smoking friends (t = 7.51, p < .001) but not in those having smoking family members (t = 1.53, p = .13). Smoking consequence beliefs and cultural norms did not significantly differ whether they had smoking family members/friends. Linear regression tests indicated that frequent communication with smoking friends associated with positive cultural norms (β = .29, p < .001), positive subjective norms (β = .45, p < .001), positive smoking consequence beliefs (β = .21, p < .001), positive smoking attitudes (β = .46, p < .001), lower refusal efficacy (β = -.33, p < .001), higher smoking intention (β = .49, p < .001), and larger smoking amount (β = .39, p < .001) after controlling for age and gender. Frequent communication with smoking family members was also associated with all variables except for cultural norms and smoking consequence beliefs.

Conclusions: Overall, family/peer’s smoking behaviors and communication with them have influences on individual smoking beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. These findings highlight the importance of addressing the interpersonal social environment of smoking for interventions in Kenya.