An examination of risk factors that predict adolescent smoking in Turkey

Most adult smokers started smoking during adolescence and those who started at that age are more prone to have trouble quitting. Smoking during childhood and teenage years is associated with serious health problems, such as respiratory and lung issues, as well as a loss of physical fitness. Globally, 1.3 billion aged 15 and above are smokers, and the global and local expenditure associated with smoking-related illness amount to $467 billion and $25 billion respectively. Against this background, the thesis is concerned with investigating family, personal and social risk factors that predict adolescent smoking behaviors in Turkey. Specifically, to investigated child-parent relationships, educational level of parents, perception of academic success, peer relationships pressures, teacher-student relationships, gender, and their association with adolescent smoking using an archive that was collected in 2019 among 751 high school students from Anadolu high school, Imam Hatip high school and Vocational high school in Bağcılar. The Spearman correlation coefficient and the chi-square test of independence were conducted to analyze the variables of interest. Of all the variables of interest, the results found an association between child-parent relationships, academic success, teacher-student relationships, peer relationships, gender, and adolescent smoking. More specifically, child-mother relationships and perception of academic success were found to be associated with adolescent smoking in vocational high school, whereas teacher-student relationships, and gender were found to be associated with adolescent smoking in Imam Hatip high school. In Anadolu high school, the only variable that was found to be associated with adolescent smoking was peer relationships pressures. Keywords: Academic Factors; Adolescent Smoking; Bağcılar; Family Factors; Personal Factors; Social Factors.