THE USE OF TABACCO BY TEENAGERS: RISK FACTORS AND PROTECTION FACTORS

Abstract

This analytic, quali-quantitative study was made to measure the consumption of tabacco and their relationship with risk factors and individual, family and sociocultural protections and teenagers in public schools in the city of Valparaiso during the year 2000.

In the first part of this study, 12 to 15 students were chosen, from 6 different schools to have 2 sessions where they talked about the consumption of tabacco. In the second part, they interviewed 392 students from these schools about their knowledge and attitudes in relation to this habit.

A significant percentage of them were smokers (almost 50 % of them) and almost all of them started to smoke when they were 12-13 years old. The common risk factors were low self-esteem, lack of sport activities, high concurrence to parties; smoker's friends (usually their best friends) and at least one of their parents or someone, who is living permanently in their house, smokes.

Among the protection factors, good self-esteem, to share with non-smoking friends (especially their best friends), to have non-smoking parents and also to have knowledge about how dangerous is tabacco for their health, are found.
The teenager's smokers skills were determinated so they can use it to create future strategies to prevent this bad habit.