Aims: To quantify the correlation between male and female smoking prevalence in elementary school classes by group-level analysis. Methods: This study was the Danish contribution to the cross-national study Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) 1998. Ninety school classes at grade nine (1,515 students) from a random sample of schools in Denmark took part. The proportion of male and female "at all '' smokers and daily smokers in the school class was calculated. Results: The mean "at all'' smoking proportion in the school classes is 39% for girls and 32% for boys. The proportion of male and female smokers within school classes does not correlate. There is high variation in male and female smoking behaviour between school classes. Conclusions: The infl uence of social classroom environment on the processes causing smoking behaviour may be different for boys and girls. This paper illustrates that group-level analysis provides valuable new knowledge.
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