Young People Smokers’ Reactions on Peer Influence Not to Smoke

Abstract

Overt and frequent discouragement seems to be less effective in stimulating young people to take an active role in the dialogue with their peers about smoking.

Sources of health information used by Qatari adolescents

“…Scattered evidence about alternative sources of health information has already hinted at family and friends as the most used channels in Qatar, followed by the internet (7,8). In the Gulf region, personal communication appears important as well (9,10,11), likewise in South America (12,13) and in western countries (14), above all among adolescents (4)(5)(6)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22). Arab culture should even strengthen the role of personal communication since culturally it is more relationship-based (23) where personal connections play an important role (24) and social behaviour tends to be more determined by one's family, superiors and peers (25).…”

Experimental study designs examining social context and smoking: scientific challenges and considerations

“…passive and active social influence . The focus needs to be upon both encouragement and discouragement of others to engage in risk behaviour . The duration and frequency of social influence also need to be investigated.…”

“…The duration and frequency of social influence also need to be investigated. For example, frequent verbal peer discouragement targeted at a daily smoker for a short period of time evokes resistance and may result in a boomerang effect.…”

“…Also, longitudinal social network designs using recent statistical techniques allow simultaneous analysis of (de‐)selection and influence processes, and further combination with observational/experimental studies offers a deeper and more precise understanding. In addition, combining quantitative and qualitative approaches may be beneficial; for example, an experiment to induce reasoning and verbalized attitudes combined with discourse analysis . The responses received in an experimental design might be more ‘natural’ because individuals are unaware that they are participating in a study on smoking, thus reducing the tendency to provide socially desirable responses.…”

A randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of a peer-based social mobile game intervention to reduce smoking in youth

“…Several intervention programs integrate peer influence processes in one way or another, such as by including social skill training that is directed at helping youth say no to smoking peers, by nonsmoking youth's giving support and advice to smoking youths, or by suggesting to spend less time with their smoking peers (Golechha, 2016; Sussman & Sun, 2009). These programs remain highly problematic, however, for several reasons: (a) the content is still solely targeted at the individual instead of a broader peer group (Gabble et al, 2015), (b) imbalanced relationships between the support giver and support taker are not helpful (Lenkens et al, 2019), and (c) these programs instigate high resistance among young smokers (Harakeh & Van Nijnatten, 2016; Schenk et al, 2018; Wolburg, 2006).…”