J Korean Community Nurs.  1996 Dec;7(2):420-436.

A Descriptive Study Of School Children's Knowledge, Attitudes And Practices Regarding Smoking

• Park IH

Abstract

The goal of this study is to explore different risk factors for smoking and look at the relationships between knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intentions regarding smoking among schoolchildren, in order to reduce teenage smoking. To achieve this goal a self-administered questionaire regarding smoking was provided to schoolchildren in the 7th and 8th grades in one junior high school in Jerusalem. The schoolchildren were exposed to 10-12 hours of a smoking prevention intervention program. The questionaire focused primarily on the personal characteristics, social environment, knowledge, attitudes, practices, and behavioral intentions of the children. Crosstabs were performed on each variable to determine if significant associations exist among the different variables. The statistical computer, package, SPSS PC, was used to manipulate the data along with Chi-square test. The findings were as follows : About 11% of the children aged 12-14 have ever smoked or are smoking currently, and about 24.0% of those who ever smoked started smoking at the age of 10. Boys smoke more(p<.01), poorer students(by self-perception of school performance) smoke more, and those who had peers who were smokers were more likely to smoke(p<.05). The percentage of the children who reported that either father or mother smoked was about 30%, but no statistical association was found between parental smoking and children"s smoking, although trends were noted in the expected direction, i.e. more smokers among children of smokers. Only 1.1% of the children intended to smoke in the future, and 98.0% of the children indicated that they can or they might be able to withstand social pressure. Seventy percent of the children demonstrated medium to high knowledge about smoking, Males, 8th graders, better students, and those without friends who smoke had higher social pressure showed more negative attitudes(p<.01). Those with non-smoking siblings showed more negative behavioral intentions regarding smoking(p<.01), and better students showed more negative behavioral intentions. Those who had higher knowledge scores showed more negative attitudes towards smoking, but not significantly so. Those who had very negative behavioral intentions showed highly significant negative attitudes towards smoking(p<.01).

MeSH Terms

Child
Fathers
Friends
Humans
Intention
Male
Mothers
Parents
Risk Factors
Self Concept
Siblings
Smoke*
Smoking*
Sociology
Smoke