The investigation of stress, multi-dimensional social support and self-efficacy levels perceived by the university students depending on their smoking status

The aim of this research is to examine the stress, multidimensional social support and self-efficacy levels perceived by the university students depending on their smoking status. The sample of the research consists of 1195 university students pursuing their undergraduate education in six different faculties of Uşak University. In this study, the data were collected by using the scales of Perceived Stress, Multidimensional Perceived Social Support, General Self-Efficacy and Fagerstrom Nicotine Dependence as well as the personal information form originated by the researcher to understand and determine the relationship between the demographic characteristics and smoking habits of the students. In the analysis of the data frequency-percentage distributions, according to the characteristics of the data set t-test, one way variance analysis, and appropriate post-hoc techniques to detect the source of difference were used. Significance level in the study was determined as 0.05. Dependent on the findings of the research, 460 of the university students who participated in the study were smokers and 735 were non-smokers. In this study the smoking status of university students was evaluated to be significantly differed by gender, age, faculty of education, class attendance, resident's location during school term, monthly personal income, parents' education status, parents' smoking status, sibling smoking status and friend smoking status variables. In the study nicotine dependence status of students who have smoked was found to be significantly different depending on age, age at starting smoking, years of smoking and number of cigarettes smoked per day. As a result of the research, it was found that smoking university students had significantly higher perceived stress scores, while they had significantly lower multidimensional perceived social support scores and self-efficacy scores than non-smoking students. The research also found that university students with high levels of dependency had significantly higher stress scores, as well as they had significantly lower multidimensional perceived social support scores and self-efficacy scores than perceived by students with low levels of dependency. As a result, the smoking status of university students and the nicotine dependence levels of smoking students are affected on the stress, family, friend, special human social support and self-efficacy levels they perceived. Based on these results, various suggestions have been offered to interested parties, including mental health professionals and scholars working in the field of substance addiction particularly cigarette addiction regarding protective and preventive activities and similar studies in the future. Key Words: Smoking status; Stress; Social Support; Self-efficacy