The image of the rebelling teenager almost includes the James Dean pose with a cigarette close in hand. According to the American Lung Association, one in five of high school seniors smoke daily, with almost 6,000 teenagers lighting up for the first time every day. It becomes clear the image isn't far from wrong.
Why Teenagers Smoke
There are a number of factors contributing to smoking among teenagers. The American Lung Association suggests these include media pressure, the novelty of the experience and the friends with which the teenager associates.
Teenagers are especially susceptible to media advertising. Many experts point to the billions of dollars spent on market research reaching the teenage market. Unfortunately, tobacco companies take advantage of this research to push cigarettes as something to be enjoyed because many of their TV role models happily light up on screen.
Teenagers are also naturally attracted to new situations and experiences. As teenagers develop, one of their internal drives is to have new experiences. The hardest hook cigarettes have is they do offer a new, pleasant physical sensation. The mild euphoria of first exposure to nicotine is an almost universal experience. And, while the body quickly builds tolerance to the sensation, nicotine addiction comes quickly. Once teenagers light up, they can quickly build both physical and psychological addictions to nicotine.
The peer groups teenagers spend their time with seem to influence their values in almost all areas. Simply stated, teens who have friends who smoke are more likely to smoke themselves. William Evans writes in "Measuring Peer Group Effects: A Study of Teenage Behavior" [The Journal of American Economy, 1992] peer group influences largely outweigh parental or family influence. Yet another reason for parents to carefully monitor teenage peer groups.
What Parents Can Do to Stem Teenage Smoking
With the number of factors in play in pushing teenagers to smoke, many parents feel helpless to stop teens from experimenting with tobacco. However, parents still retain a number of options to help slow or stop teenagers from smoking.
Education is one key. Teens may not be getting the full story about tobacco from their friends and certainly not from the media. Parents should make it a point to talk to teenagers about the dangers of tobacco, especially the difficulty in stopping once experienced. One useful statistic, again on the American Lung Association's website, is that after smoking 100 cigarettes there is almost a universal desire to stop smoking but the inability to do so.
Parents should also educate teenagers on the laws regulating tobacco in local statutes. Many laws actually provide for arrest in some transactions involving tobacco.
Providing plenty of family time is also important. Teenagers actively involved in the family do have a higher likelihood of absorbing family values. Family dinners and game nights give parents a chance to introduce topics like smoking and share ideas and values with teenagers.
Parents should also do their best to encourage adolescents to have supportive friends with good value sets. Encouraging participation in Houses of Faith, whether they be churches or synagogues or other, is important. This exposes teenagers to other children holding higher values which often include the exclusion of the use of tobacco.
While tobacco use continues to be high among teenagers because of its novelty and media appeal, there are true dangers involved in using tobacco. In addition to its immediate dangers, cigarettes act as gateway drugs. That is, they make using other substances more likely. Parents can help through education, stating the parent's beliefs and desires for teenagers not to use tobacco and encouraging teenagers to form good, supportive peer groups.
Reece Manley - Reece W. Manley, DD,M.Ed.MPM, works in a number of fields using his extensive experience and educational background in human development, ...
