Young students’ attitudes toward tobacco smoking

Abstract

The article presents the results of an empirical study on the problem of the young students’ attitudes toward tobacco smoking. The theoretical and methodological basis of the research has been substantiated; the structural elements of attitudes towards smoking have been determined and characterized; the level of tobacco use among students and some aspects of young people’s attitudes towards smoking and smokers have been analyzed, and the social and psychological factors of tobacco smoking have been revealed.

The results of an empirical study have shown that there are more negative and neutral attitudes towards tobacco use among the surveyed students of higher education institutions. Active smokers are a third of the respondents and another half of the surveyed students had a smoking experience in the past. The youth are tolerant with people who smoke but being involved in passive smoking causes negative attitude toward these people.

Nowadays students smoke mostly for reducing emotional stress, getting satisfaction from a smoking process and following others.

The following socio-psychological factors have a significant influence on the students' inclination to smoking: difficult situations in life, ability to withstand stress and interpersonal relationships with peers. The influence of both the family and the staff of educational institution on starting smoking is less important. Regular smoking, finding personal meaning in smoking and possibility to meet the current needs provided by smoking lead to nicotine addiction in many users.

Significant contradictions have been found among some aspects of the students’ attitudes towards smoking. The youth are aware of the negative effects of smoking for the human body. However, a lot of young people continue smoking.That is all clear evidence of the lack of the responsible attitude of the younger generation to their health and the health of other people.

According to the results of the study, the main directions of corrective and preventive work have been identified in order to prevent the development of the tobacco use among young students and to promote a good attitude to health and healthy lifestyles.

Besides discussing the adverse effects of cigarette smoking on the human body, another important direction in the work is teaching children and young people to use constructive techniques for fighting the negative emotions and developing good interpersonal relationships among students and structuring of time without cigarette smoking.