Adolescent Internet Use and its Relationship to Cigarette Smoking and Alcohol Use in Taiwan: Findings from a Cohort Study

While certain mass media exposure is associated with the presence of problem behaviors, little is known about the longitudinal impact of exposure to internet on the development of cigarette smoking and alcohol misuse in adolescents. Due to the pervasiveness of internet use among adolescents, this paper examines internet exposure and its linkage with future adolescent cigarette/alcohol use. It is also argued that this longitudinal relationship may differ by gender; an attempt is made to delineate plausible internet exposure revealed by boys versus girls in cigarette versus alcohol use. Data are taken from the Taiwan Youth Project, a cohort sample who did not have cigarette/alcohol use experience at age 16 with a 4-year follow-up. Measures of internet exposure include 3 aspects: where to use, why to use, and how often to use. To incorporate conventional determinants with peer, individual, and family characteristics measured at age 16 or younger, multivariate regressions are employed to estimate models in odds of development of cigarette smoking and alcohol misuse by age 20. Results confirm that in addition to the above determinants, adolescent internet exposure contributes to the development of cigarette smoking and alcohol misuse and its relationships vary by gender.