{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,23]],"date-time":"2026-10-23T13:33:17Z","timestamp":1792762397118,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,1]],"date-time":"2022-04-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1648771200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJERPH"],"abstract":"<jats:p>China has witnessed unprecedented rural-to-urban migration since the early 1980s. While trying to assimilate into the city, rural-to-urban migrants still maintain close ties with their home communities. This study examines how local ties and trans-local ties of rural-to-urban migrants affect their alcohol and tobacco use. Data were obtained from the 2016 and 2018 China Labor-force Dynamics Survey, a nationally representative sample of adults aged over 15 in 29 provinces in China. Participants included 1426 rural-to-urban migrant workers and 6438 urban residents in China. We found that compared to urban natives, rural-to-urban migrants had higher tobacco use prevalence (logit = 0.19, 95% CI = [0.03, 0.35]; p &lt; 0.05) and more frequent alcohol use (logit = 0.27, 95% CI = [0.11, 0.42]; p &lt; 0.001) after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics. Migrants with more local social ties engaged in more frequent drinking (having &gt;10 local friends vs. having 0 local friends: logit = 0.58, [0.10, 1.06], p &lt; 0.05), whereas trans-local ties were not a significant correlate. In contrast, migrants who returned to their hometown more times (an indicator of trans-local ties) were more likely to be current tobacco users (logit = 0.01, 95% CI = [0.00, 0.02], p &lt; 0.01) after adjusting for sociodemographic variables. These findings extended the research on social networks and health behaviors by identifying how local and trans-local ties differentially affected the vulnerabilities of tobacco and alcohol use among rural-to-urban migrants in China. The findings suggested that policies and interventions on reducing migrants\u2019 health risk behaviors should focus on the role of different types of social ties.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph19074233","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,1]],"date-time":"2022-04-01T21:22:39Z","timestamp":1648848159000},"page":"4233","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":11,"title":["Local Ties, Trans-Local Ties, and Substance Use among Rural-to-Urban Migrants in China"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"19","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4246-2492","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xi","family":"Chen","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"The Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2955-5029","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hua","family":"Zhong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Sociology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9221-5476","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Serena Yunran","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Sociology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,4,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"243","DOI":"10.1177\/0097700410379482","article-title":"What determines migrant workers\u2019 life chances in contemporary China? 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