Korean adolescent’s cigarette, e-cigarette, and dual use within the peer network context: A mixed methods study

The current study aims to investigate the relationship between peer network and smoking behavior, taking into account the structural, positional, and contextual aspects of the network. Using an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, a total of 73 Korean adolescents participated in the survey and seven current smokers from three sub-networks were invited for individual qualitative interviews. The quantitative findings revealed that out-degree centrality was associated with ever cigarette use and dual use, while betweenness centrality was related to ever cigarette use only. In the qualitative strand, three themes were identified: Fully assimilating into the mainstream, forced to stay within the boundary, and being introduced to new items and culture through the information network. The integrated findings provided deeper context and reasons for a higher in-degree centrality for dual-user network and a higher out-degree centrality for out-of-school adolescent network, the social hierarchy of adolescents in relation to cohesion index and clustering coefficient, and the type of information shared within the network. This study identified vulnerable individuals and groups in the peer network with regard to smoking and explored the smoking norms and culture of Korean adolescents within the network structure.