Why Do Teenagers Smoke - Term Paper Example

Introduction On every cigarette packet, it is clearly written as Sta y Warning that ‘Cigarette Smoking is Injurious to Health’. Yet millions of people around the world smoke cigarettes everyday. Are they illiterate, or fools not to understand the dangerous warning? Unfortunately most of them are not. Then the obvious question that arises in the mind is that, ‘Aren’t they afraid to die because of tobacco?’. The answer to these and several other questions related to smoking can possibly be answered through the analysis of the factors, which compel one to smoke. Parental Role in Smoking A research, published in the September issue of the journal named ‘Pediatrics’, it was found that parents play a major role in their child’s habit of smoking. Though adolescence or teen age is not as impressionistic in the life of an individual as the childhood years, yet many things that an adolescent see around create a lifelong impression on his mind. If he finds his father, or mother, or both, indulged in a habit of smoking, then it is assumed that the adolescent would also develop the same habit. A sense of security would work in him about the future effects of smoking, because if he sees his parent(s) smoking for years, and still not affected in any ways, then he would also take the harmful effects of smoking for granted. Ming Jung Kim, the lead author of this research, observes, "If parents smoke, teens have more access to cigarettes than teens who have non-smoking parents”. (Science Daily) On the other hand, if one does not see his parents smoking, then there is a chance that he would also stay away from smoking. Though it cannot be said surely that the child of a non-smoking couple will never smoke, but there is a place for assumption that the parents’ good habit may be reflected in the child too. If a teen gets addicted to smoking, then parents should explain to him the destructive after effects of smoking and make him understand that with growing years it will be more difficult for him to quit smoking if he gets used to it. They may also set an inspirational example for their child by quitting smoking in case they are indulged in it. According to Kim, “Parents who smoke also need to understand that they are modeling behavior and if they quit smoking they send a strong message to their teenager". (Science Daily) It will definitely create an urge in the child’s mind to follow his parents. (Science Daily) Preventive Measures That Parents Can Take Up Parents should try to create a strong dislike in the minds of their adolescent son or daughter about smoking and tobacco from the onset of adolescence. They may establish some strict rules in their house about smoking, on violation of which their children will have to face dire consequences. It is advisable for parents to befriend their children during adolescence, but they should be strict at the same time to prevent their teens from straying into wrong paths. Parents must also have absolute knowledge of their children’s whereabouts and their friends. A bad friend’s circle and association with the wrong persons is bound to divert an adolescent’s mind away from studies into things like smoking and drinking. Therefore, it is extremely important to guide and steer the adolescents at this time of their life. If guided in the correct ways, teenagers are bound to listen to their parents as parents often act as role models to their children. Psychological Factors Working Behind Teen-age Smoking Researches have shown that first time smoking experience has not been satisfying with the teens. It has resulted in cough and choking for most of the times. Then what may be the reasons that more and more teenagers get addicted to smoking? An analysis of the several psychological factors that push teenagers towards this deadly habit may provide the answer. A. Peer Pressure According to the psychiatrists and psychoanalysts, peer group influences play a major role in drawing an adolescent towards smoking. It is generally seen that if there is a smoker in a group, then that person motivates others to take up smoking. During adolescence, friends hold the same importance in the minds of the adolescents as that of parents. At that age their power of judging and understanding what is good and what is not, does not develop fully. As a result, whatever their friends say, seems absolute truth to them. They prefer to act according to the other members of their peer group. Even if a teen does not want to smoke then he is forced by the others to take up smoking. Sometimes the fear of getting thrown out of the group if he does not act according to the other members of the group, forces a teenager to smoke. (Helpwithsmoking) B. Hero Worship Hero worship is an important part of adolescence. An adolescent has an inclination towards choosing a person, either from the same age group, or from an older group, as his ‘idol’ or ‘hero’, and admire all his qualities and power over others. If his ‘hero’ happens to smoke, then that teen is inexorably drawn towards smoking. Pop stars and film stars too create a huge impression on the teenagers. If they find them smoking onscreen, they the teens also take up smoking in order to be and act like them. It is to be observed, “They may think that if they smoke just like their favourite idol does, then they will appear more glamorous, attractive, or sexy, like them.” (Helpwithsmoking). C. Sign of Defiance Adolescence is the time when ideas about one’s self-esteem and self-respect develop. An adolescent begins to cherish freedom in everything he does and likes to think himself independent. An urge to break free from the accepted rules and bindings develops in him during this time. If some parents are very authoritative and strict in their behavior towards their children, then their adolescent children may try to show their protest by venturing into the harmful ways of smoking, drinking and drug usage. Parents and elders should be careful in their ways of treating a teenager. They must not do or say anything that might affect their self-respect, especially in front of others. If the teenagers do anything wrong then elders should try to make him see reason by talking about it to them, not by scolding. D. Adventure and Experiment Teenagers largely take up smoking as an adventure into the forbidden paths. When they see men around them smoking, then it gives birth to a lot of curiosity in their mind regarding smoking. They wait for an opportunity to experiment with smoking for the first time, and they get it, there is no stopping. Since, nowadays, there is a lot of fuss and happenings over smoking, teenagers hear a lot about smoking and its effects. In order to find out what is good and what is bad about smoking, teenagers start smoking at an early age. They sometimes feel if they smoke, then people will consider them grown up and at par with the adults. (Helpwithsmoking) E. Gaining Acceptance in a Group Adolescents, who have low self-esteem about their appearance, performance in studies, or any other thing, generally cannot find themselves many friends. Classmates and private tuition mates show a tendency to avoid a boy or a girl from their group if they find him/her quiet, unconfident, and unsmart. That less confident and rejected boy or girl search some means to rise in the opinion of his or her friends so that they may accept him/her in their peer group. Ability to smoke comes easy in their way of building up their low self-esteem. Through smoking, adolescents, lagging behind their peers, find a solution to their problem, and a mean to establish their existence. (Helpwithsmoking) F. Study Pressure Many adolescents think that smoking can largely relieve them of their study pressure, though temporarily. The effect of Nicotine causes dizziness in the head, which they mistake for freshening up of their mind, allowing concentrating in their studies more intensely after a smoke. So to deal with study pressures, adolescents, sometimes take up smoking. If they see their parents or other elders in the family, smoking, to deal with work stress, then it becomes more valid to them that smoking would also help them relax in between study hours. G. Depression Teenagers often suffer from severe depression at this age. They remain bothered with issues related to their studies, relation with friends and teachers, parents’ expectations, and so on. Performance in class forms a major cause of depression among students. If a teenager consistently performs poorly in the class, then he may suffer from serious depression because it not only lowers his self-confidence but also affects him in his mental growth. Parents have a lot of expectations from their wards these days, which draws adolescents more towards addictions in case they fail to meet their parents’ demands. Smoking and consuming drugs seems an easy way out of depression to them. H. Tendency to show off A teenager commonly has a tendency of showing off. In adolescence, smoking and drinking abilities contributes to a great extent in making a teenager, the leader of a group, and making a huge impression on the other members. Thus an adolescent, in order to show off his supremacy over others, takes to smoking, and then gradually gets addicted to it. Preventive measures to deal with the psychological factors It largely depends on the kind of atmosphere an adolescent is growing up in, to shape and build his mentality. If a teenager gets a healthy atmosphere at home with parents who understand and guide him perfectly, then he will develop lesser inclination towards outside means to prove himself. Proper understanding and counseling are extremely important in keeping an adolescent away from smoking. Parents have to appreciate every good habit their adolescent child develops and every achievement, minor or major, he makes in order to build up his self-esteem. A sense of good and bad has to be instilled in him from an early age so that he himself can decide whether to go for a bad habit or not. He must be made to believe that what is bad is bad always, and even doing a bad thing for once is undesirable. Teenagers Are Not Aware of the Harmful Effects of Nicotine Most of the Adolescents who smoke, or are eager to experiment with smoking, do not know the harmful effects that tobacco produces in the human body. Nicotine, a stimulant that causes addiction, is a very dangerous chemical present in cigarettes. The long-term effects of nicotine may lead to life taking diseases like lung and throat cancer, heart attack and asthma. It has been found out in researches that smokers have a greater risk of catching infectious diseases like bronchitis and pneumonia. They also run a greater risk of suffering from osteoporosis because smoking lowers bone density. (Kidshealth). Researches have also shown that “Each time a smoker lights up, that single cigarette takes about 5 to 20 minutes off the persons life.” (Kidshealth). Teenagers are not aware of the fact that smoking can cause infertility and various other sexual problems in them. Not only does cigarette smoking cause several life threatening diseases, but other less significant problems as well. Smokers are much undesirable in a group of non-smokers for their bad breathe, smelly clothes, and consistent coughing habit (in some). Teenagers who smoke tend to lose out to their non-smoking peers in sports because smoking decreases blood circulation and increases heartbeat, resulting in shortness of breath. Moreover, “Smoking affects the bodys ability to produce collagen, so common sports injuries, such as damage to tendons and ligaments, will heal more slowly in smokers than nonsmokers.” (Kidshealth) Passive smoking Teenagers are not too bothered about the harmful effects of passive smoking. A non-smoker, who remains in close association with a smoker, is affected more than the latter. Doctors have declared passive smoking to be more damaging than first hand smoking. Teenagers must be told about the effects of passive smoking, so that they can discourage others who smoke in a group, and themselves remain aloof from smoking as it can harm their near and dear ones. (Kidshealth) Since it is very difficult to quit smoking once one gets addicted to it, adolescents must be made aware of the dangerous effects that smoking produces in the body. A teenager might be too reluctant to understand and register in his mind the long-term effects of smoking. He may be made to understand by taking into consideration the immediate outcome that smoking produces in his body, as he would be able to identify more easily with those and judge within himself that smoking is bad for health. If they are made aware of the fact that in spite of not smoking, they are being harmed equally as the smokers by being a recipient in passive smoking. Research on Teenage Smoking by NIDA According to the research carried out by the scientists of NIDA (The National Institute on Drug Abuse), it is found that a gene named DRD2 only partially decides whether a teenage smoker would be a regular smoker in future or not. Adolescents carrying A1 type of the gene are more expected to become regular smokers than those who are carrying the other type, A2. In a study carried by Dr. Audrain-McGovern and her team on 615 adolescents of European ancestry, it was found that two-third (67%) of them had inherited A2 form from both parents. (Zickler). Based on their answers to questions like whether they have ever tried smoking, and, if they can smoke a whole cigarette, which they answered once in 9th standard and then in 10th and 11th standard, it was concluded that there is “no association between variation in DRD2 alleles and the likelihood that participants who had never smoked would start.” (Zickler). However, a positive link was found between the A1 carriers and their tendency to continue smoking once they started in their adolescence. In the words of Dr. Audrain-McGovern "The DRD2 variant appears to play no role in whether or not these teens took that first puff. Its effect isnt seen until there is some biological exposure.” (Zickler). Thus, it may be concluded that it is ultimately an adolescent’s immediate surroundings and his frame of mind, which influences him to take the first step towards smoking. (Zickler) Depression and DRD2 In the same study it was observed that there is a connection between depression and DRD2 gene among the adolescents. When questioned about the number of times each adolescent had suffered depression in a week’s time, it was found that teens that had inherited at least one A1 allele of the DRD2 gene from their parents had faced comparatively more number of depressions than those with no A1 allele. There is no denial of the close connection that lies between depression and smoking. It was concluded, “Teens with high depression scale scores and the A1 allele were at the highest risk of smoking progression. Among teens with at least one A1 allele, 33 percent of depressed teens, compared with 25 percent of nondepressed teens, reported smoking progression within 2 years.” (Zickler). The same research group that adolescents who are more prone to depression are more open to tobacco advertisements than their counterparts who are less depressed also studied it. Thus, depending on this connection between A1 allele and depression, it may be concluded that “Those who succumb to the appeal of tobacco manufacturers advertising and have this particular genetic makeup may be more likely to progress to higher levels of smoking and ultimately experience consequences of reduced health and longetivity.” (Zickler). Research Showing Reduction in Teenage Smoking Directly Proportional to State Compliance to Laws Restricting Sales of Tobacco In a research it was found that enforcement of laws preventing sale of tobacco to the under aged in the U.S.A, reduced the number of adolescent smokers. The U.S Government strictly made the states stop-selling tobacco to the minors, and consequently, a data was collected from 16244 adolescents hence ward, for this survey. (DiFranza, Savageau and Fletcher). The data was examined in relation to the connection between state traders observance of the laws restricting sales of tobacco to the specific age group and several other determining factors like control in cigarette prices, smoking policies, media programs on anti-tobacco themes, and demographic variables, from 1997 to 2003. It was found that “Higher average state merchant compliance from 1997-2003 predicted lower levels of current daily smoking among adolescents when controlled for all other factors.” (DiFranza, Savageau and Fletcher). The ratio for daily smoking among the adolescents was “reduced by 2% for each 1% increase in merchant compliance.” (DiFranza, Savageau and Fletcher). Increase in cigarette price, media campaigns and other factors like enforcing policies of smoking restrictions in public places, a further reduction by 20.8% in smoking among students of the 10th standard was “attributed to the observed improvement in merchant compliance between 1997 and 2003” in 2003. (DiFranza, Savageau and Fletcher). Based on this result, it may be concluded that if all the nations comply with this policy provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) to control smoking among the adolescents, then a significant reduction in the number of teenage smokers may be observed worldwide. (DiFranza, Savageau and Fletcher). Conclusion Smoking has become an important determining factor in the lives of the youth. It may be said that the present societal condition in which an adolescent grows up, hugely contributes in making him an easy target in falling under the spell of tobacco consuming. As it is discussed above, parental mis-guidance, mixed with several psychological factors, influences the teenagers in taking up smoking. At adolescence, a teenager passes through such a volatile stage that it becomes easy for external factors to make him a victim of smoking. Though the A1 form of the DRD2 gene manipulates to certain extent the formation of the habit of smoking in later life, teenagers are more vulnerable to factors like parental smoking and peer pressure in getting attracted to smoking. Parents and elders have to keep a check on every significant move an adolescent makes in his common circle and monitor every development of his psyche in order to keep him away from smoking. The entire responsibility lies not with the relatives of the adolescents, but Governments of every country should equally participate in the endeavor to cut underage smoking by making and enforcing laws preventing smoking among the teenagers. Works Cited Science Daily. ‘Parents Play Key Role In Whether Teen Tobacco Use Becomes A Daily Habit’. September 2009. available at- http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090901091735.htm (Accessed on 23.3.2010) Helpwithsmoking. ‘Why do people smoke- reasons why people start and continue to smoke’. Available at- http://www.helpwithsmoking.com/why-people-smoke.php (Accessed on 23.3.2010) Zickler, Patrick. Genetic Predisposition and Depression Both Influence Teen Smoking. NIDA. Vol- 20. March 2006. available at- http://www.drugabuse.gov/NIDA_notes/NNvol20N4/Genetic.html (Accessed on 23.3.2010) DiFranza, Joseph R., Savageau, Judith A., Fletcher, Kenneth E. Enforcement of underage sales laws as a predictor of daily smoking among adolescents: a national study. University of Massachusetts Medical School. Available at- http://works.bepress.com/judith_savageau/118/ (Accessed on 23.3.2010) Kidshealth. Smoking. Available at- http://kidshealth.org/teen/drug_alcohol/tobacco/smoking.html# (Accessed on 23.3.2010) Read More