Scrutinizing Socio-Economic Determinants of Adolescent Tobacco Uptake in Türkiye: An Empirical Overview

Abstract

The prevalence of tobacco use among young individuals is a significant public health concern. This study investigated the socioeconomic factors that contribute to smoking behavior among Turkish adolescents using a Zero-Inflated Ordered Probit model. We gathered smoking prevalence data (38,182 people, aged 11–18) from Türkiye from the Global Youth Tobacco Survey organized by the World Health Organization. The results show that adolescents exhibit lower rates of smoking, and parental employment acts as a deterrent to adolescent smoking. There is a higher probability that young individuals who frequently smoke and have mothers with a higher level of education will quit smoking. In addition, the results indicate that for individuals who are smokers or non-smokers, advertisements on several platforms, such as social media, increase the probability of initiating tobacco usage. Moreover, as age and gender play a significant role in influencing smoking habits, income has a paradoxical relationship with more frequent smoking. This study demonstrated the complex relationships between economic, educational, and environmental factors and adolescent smoking. This study recommends implementing focused and varied public health interventions in Türkiye to address youth smoking, considering socioeconomic factors and family dynamics. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2025.