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Health Education Research, Vol. 10, No. 4, 443-454, 1995
© 1995 Oxford University Press

research-article

The social image of smoking among young people in Scotland

H. Allbutt, A. Amos1 and S. Cunningham-Burley1

Department of Social Work, Adam Ferguson Building, Edinburgh University Edinburgh EH8 9LL
1Department of Public Health Sciences, Medical School Teviot Place, Edinburgh EH8 9AG, UK

This study aimed to gain an understanding of the contemporary images of smoking held by young people, the sources of such images, and their relationship to young people's social groupings and smoking behaviour. It involved an in-depth qualitative investigation using focus groups to elicit young people's ideas, attitudes and experiences of smoking. A total of 234 people from three age groups (11–12, 13–15 and 16–20 years) participated in the study. Cigarette smoking was found to be predominantly a social and group activity. It was also a behaviour about which young people often held ambivalent and contradictory attitudes, e.g. expressing both positive and negative images irrespective of whether or not they smoked. For many smokers, smoking was part of their social and cultural worlds, e.g. in their group activities, or the focus of specific concerns such as weight loss. Smokers often seemed to view their own behaviour and that of others differently. The research has implications for health promotion, particularly the need to understand and address the meanings that young people attach to their behaviours, and acknowledge the ambivalence and contradictions in their attitudes.


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