A Qualitative Study on the Influence of Parental Smoking on Adolescents’ Addiction

Abstract

Given that the adolescence period is one of the most crucial stages of development during one’s lifetime and adolescents are prone to engaging in behaviours that may negatively impact their health, it is very important to have a deep and transparent understanding of adolescents’ health needs and problems (Andrews et al., 1997). Adolescent smoking use can place youth at risk for a range of poor outcomes (Brown, 2002). The purpose of this study was to describe a qualitative study on the influence of parental smoking on adolescents’ addiction. Few studies have attempted to delve deeply into the perceptions of young people about how familial processes and dynamics influence adolescent smoking. This article aimed to explore risk and protective factors for youth smoking use within the context of family-based interventions, because youth live with more complex issues. The quality of the teenagers’ connections with their parents appeared as crucial to how they viewed their surroundings and how they understood signals regarding smoking. A qualitative study was conducted based on in-depth face-to-face interviews with twelve male smokers, aged 13–19 years, living in South Andaman, Port Blair. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve adolescents. The transcripts of the interview were taken as raw data, and the data analysis was done using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Most of the participants recognised that their parents played an important role in shaping their experiences with cigarettes. Most of the participants recognised that their parents played an important role in shaping their experiences with cigarettes. They identified many ways in which their parents affected their smoking behaviour.