The relationship of smoking addiction and separation individuation process in adolencents

The aim of this study is to examine the psychological symptoms of adolescents who are addicted to smoking with their separation individuation levels. This research covers the students in a private secondary education institution in Güngören in the Istanbul European Side in the academic year of 2017-2018. 125 female students and 105 male students. The subjects were divided into 2 groups, namely, cigarette addicted adolescents and non-addicted adolescents. A total of 230 participants consisting of 84 non-addicted and 146 non-addicted groups constituted the database of the study. Individual Information Form, Fagerstrom Nicotine Dependence Test, Adolescent Separation Individualization Test and SCL 90-R Psychological Symptom Screening Test were applied. Shapiro-Wilk test and Mann Whitney U tests were used in the analysis of the obtained data. As a result of the research, male students smoked more than female students, 17 year old adult group had a higher rate of smoking than the other groups, parental divorced individuals had a higher rate of smoking, smoking rate of remaining adolencents in the class was statistically higher, the adolescents who had a friend who smoked were found to be more likely to smoke than the other groups. Participants who were addicted to cigarettes were found to have a statistically significant higher SCL-90R total scale score than non-addicted participants. Non-addicted participants were found to have a statistically significant higher level of need anxiety and desire denial subscale scores than participants who are addicted to smoking. At the end of the research, results, discussions and suggestions were made to the researchers based on the findings. Key Words: Adolescence, Separation Individualization Theory, Cigarette Addiction