SMOKING AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS

Smoking among College Students



Smoking among College Students

Article 1: Gender Dimensions of Smoking among College Students

The study was conducted by a group of researchers in United States in the year 2006. The main objective was this study was to analyze the trends for smoking, which exists among college students, from the perspective of gender. The researchers used ethnographic research in which observations, interviews and focused group discussion were included. The areas which the researchers explored include reasons for smoking, the acceptability to smoke in different situations, the observation of friends' and self smoking, and shared smoking as a mean of showing empathy and communicating concerns.

As indicated in the literature review, that social smoking is common among college students in the United States, and this phenomenon is of great concern as the level of smoking college and high school students are increasing every year. The literature also indicates that, in college years, smoking is equal among both the genders. According to the results of National College Health Risk Behavior Survey, students who tried smoking during the college days including both men and women are current smokers.

The researchers of this article used qualitative research approach for identifying the dimension of smoking in college students, on the basis of gender. The research comprised of two ethnographic studies, one was a yearlong pilot study, which aimed to identify the experiences of freshman at a Southwestern University. Data was collected from those students who smoked at a low level. All the participants belong to the age group of 18 to 19 years. In addition to this focused group discussion on the topic of gender and smoking was also conducted. The study also included on campus observations. The second study was initiated at a Midwestern University for incoming freshman. In this study, web-based data ...