Personal and social factors as a determinate of adolescent smoking

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background Personal and social difficulties are key contributors to smoking during adolescence. This study examined personal and social factors that influence adolescent smoking. In all the study examined gender, perception of academic success, relationship between students’ teaching-students relationship, and adolescent smoking. Method Data used for this study are a portion of a large cross-sectional archival survey data titled “A questionnaire for high-school students on cigarette-alcohol-substance use” that was collected in 2018 among three high-school types (Anadolu High School, Imam Hatip High School, and Vocation high school) in Bagcilar, Istanbul. We examined the association between personal factors, social factors, and adolescent smoking by using the Spearman correlation and chi-square test of independence. Findings Of all the variables irrespective of the influence of school types, the results found a link between negative perception of academic success, teacher–student relationships, peer relationships, and gender on adolescent smoking. More specifically, a negative perception of academic success was found to influence adolescent smoking in vocational high schools, while teacher–student relationships, and gender were found to influence adolescent smoking in Imam Hatip high schools. The only variable that was found to influence adolescent smoking in Anadolu high schools was peer relationship pressures.