Gender, Attitude, and Behavior of Drinking and Smoking in Teenagers

Abstract

The risky behaviours in a teenager were proven to be able to affect health. However, there was not much evidence when it was correlated with the gender. This study aimed to identify the correlation of gender and attitudes towards the behaviours of drinking alcoholic beverages and smoking. The research design used was observational analytic with cross sectional approach. The dependent variables were the behaviours of drinking alcoholic beverages and smoking, and the independent variables were gender and attitudes. The population was 7470 students of Universitas Muhammadiyah Jember. The sampling was done by using simple random sampling and 365 samples were obtained. Data collection used was questionnaires and data analysis used was path analysis. The results show that there was a significant correlation between attitude and behaviour of smoking, between the behaviours of drinking alcoholic beverages and smoking, between gender and the behaviour of smoking, between the behaviours of drinking alcoholic beverages and smoking, between the gender and behaviour of smoking, and between attitude and behaviour in drinking alcoholic beverages. Therefore, the good attitudes to drinking alcoholic beverages and smoking has a potential to reduce smoking behaviour, especially in teenagers.