The effect of personal and environmental factors on smoking behaviors in students: structural equation model

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background Personal and environmental factors can affect smoking behavior. Understanding the relationships between personal and environmental factors with smoking behavior can provide valuable insights into creating smoking prevention interventions in students. The purpose of the current study was to explore the relationship between demographics, smoking behavior, personal and environmental factors Methods This cross-sectional study was performed on 300 male high school students in Tehran using multi-stage sampling. The researcher-made questionnaire was used in two sections, including demographic, personal factors, environmental factors, and smoking behavior. The structural equation modeling (SEM) was also used to examine the relationships between variables. Results SEM results showed that the direct path of environmental factors on smoking behavior (β = – 0.42, P < .05) and the direct path of personal factors on smoking behavior (β = – 0.11, P < .01) were significant. Conclusions The results of this study showed that among the questions of personal and environmental factors, “smoking reduces the ability to work and do the physical activity” and “access to smoking” had the most significant effect on forming personal and environmental factors, respectively. Therefore, it can be concluded that these two questions also affected smoking behavior.