Socio-psychological risk factors that influence Smoking Prevalence among Youth in the United States of America

Abstract

The smoking habit among youth is an active problem. In the United States, 11.1% of youths first smoked at age 10 years and below whereas 60.4% of school going children of age 16 year and more reported smoked a full cigarette. Retrospective U.S. national data on smoking prevalence indicates that daily active adult smokers started smoking before the age of 18 years.  A cross-sectional study of 116,637 youths of ages 12-34 years was conducted across US states. Data was also sourced from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Youth Tobacco Survey and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The socio-psychosocial risk factors investigated include contemplation of suicide, use of alcohol and drugs, level of strictness of parent or guardian, peer influence, awareness about dangers of smoking and level of self-esteem. Data analysis was done by use of Statistical Software for Social Sciences Version 25.0 Software. A significance level of p of <0.05 was used. Logit model was employed to determine of association between socio-psychosocial risk factors and smoking prevalence among youth in US. The significant psychosocial risk factors that predict smoking initiation among youth in US were identified as use of alcohol and drug, peer influence, awareness influence and self-esteem. A conclusion is therefore made that use of alcohol and drug, peer influence, awareness influence and self-esteem are significant psychosocial risk factors that influence smoking initiation among the youth. There is need for periodic educational awareness programmes for youth regarding use of alcohol and drug. Educational institutions including schools, colleges and rehabilitation centers need to further emphasize in teaching and creating awareness among youth on the dangers associated with smoking. There is also need for counseling sessions in school, churches and community levels for youth who may be facing problems related with low self-esteem. The counseling sessions should gear at identifying the causative factors and devise mechanism to create self-worth among the youth. In addition, parents, guardians, religious leaders and other community members need to work in coordination to identify peer influence among youth and advise accordingly to protect many youth from falling trap to peer influence for lack of awareness.  There is also need to for correctional centers serviced by well-trained social personnel, psychologists to counsel and correct youth who are addicted to smoking. Keywords: Socio-psychological risk factors, Smoking Prevalence, Youth, USA