Influence of Peers’ Conformity and Sensation Seeking towards Smoking Behavior on Adolescents

Abstract

The development of adolescents’ social life is marked by the increase of peers’ influence in their lives. Most of their time is spent to have a relation or to have asocialization with their peers; when their peers behave well, the teenagers will also behave well and in contrast, if their peers behave bad, the teenagers will also behave bad. This research aims to examine the influence of peers’ conformity and sensation seeking towards smoking behavior. In addition, this research uses quantitative approach with ex-post facto research type. The sample of this research simple random sampling technique with the total of sample is 381 students. The results of this research are: 1) peers’ conformity and sensation seeking are two factors that collectively can influence the students’ smoking behavior significantly; 2) the contribution given by peers’ conformity and sensation seeking towards students’ smoking behavior is 62,2% and the remaining 37,8% is influenced by other factors besides peers’ conformity and sensation seeking.