| Summary: | Magister Psychologiae - MPsych === Tobacco smoking remains the largest preventable behavioural cause of chronic
disease and premature death. Many people continue to engage in this behaviour,
despite the well-known negative health consequences. The most common form of
smoking is cigarette smoking, which is a type of risk-taking behaviour that is
becoming increasingly prevalent among adolescents. Cigarette consumption rates are
increasing among adolescents in various parts of the world; each year nearly a million
adolescents start to smoke. This behaviour, if continued into adulthood, may lead to a
range of debilitating diseases of lifestyle. In an effort to contribute to the success of
adolescent smoking cessation programmes in South Africa, this study looks at the
factors that motivate and support adolescents‘ decision to start and continue with their
cigarette smoking behaviour. Utilising a qualitative framework, individual interviews
were carried out with six boys and six girls from an English-medium high school
within Cape Town. The participants‘ ages ranged from 16-18 years. Through the use
of thematic analysis, the results show that adolescents smoking are not determined by
knowledge, beliefs and attitudes alone, but by social and environmental influences as
well. Risk and protective factors for adolescent smoking was identified on a
psychological, physical, social/environmental level cross-cuttingly on the different
stages of the smoking cycle. Of importance was the adolescents‘ common
misinterpretation of 'smoking out of habit‘ for 'addiction‘. Essentially, this study
focused on the importance of adolescent health and how it is affected by factors
associated with tobacco use in South Africa. Therefore, a key recommendation of this
study would be for these underlying risk and protective factors needs to be integrated
to strengthen current smoking cessation programmes.
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