Why do Teens Find it Harder to Quit Smoking?

[olga wood]

If you are an adult and ever tried to quit smoking, you realize how
hard it can be. But have you ever found yourself wondering why teens
have a harder time quitting smoking than adults. Teenagers are faced
with a completely different set of challenges when attempting to quit
smoking cigarettes than are adults.
Whether you may realize it or not, teen smoking is one of the major
problems found in our society. Parents who have teenagers that smoke
cigarettes find many challenges attempting to get their teens to quit
- Or to keep them from beginning the habit in the first place.
Teenage smoking had been on the decline since the mid to late 1990s.
But data that has come out just recently is beginning to show that
cigarette smoking among teens is once again on the rise.
As adults we are aware of the serious long-term health risks and
consequences of teenage smoking. We are all too familiar with the
evidence pointing to chronic smoking related diseases. However, we
wonder why some teens tend to ignore this evidence and begin smoking
in the face of the many reasons why they shouldn't.
Among the various different reasons given for the difficulties in
teenagers quitting smoking are friends and family who smoke, peer
pressure, and advertising geared toward teenagers. Some of the other
reasons may include a natural rebelliousness of the teen, or smoking
to the relieve feelings of anxiety or sadness.
In the sections that follow, we consider some of the reasons why teens
may have a harder time quitting smoking and how you may, as that
teen's parent Or guardian, may begin to help.
Parents Who Smoke
If you are a parent who smokes can you honestly be wondering why it is
harder for your teens to quit smoking?
We often find that teenagers have a tendency to imitate the people in
her surroundings with whom they feel the closest. Having older
brothers and sisters or parents who smoke cigarettes is one of the
biggest risk factors for teenage smoking. This is one time you do not
want your kids to copy your behavior.
Teenagers having parents who are smokers have a higher tendency to be
smokers themselves. By smoking themselves, parents set an example and
send a signal to their teenagers to "do as I say but not as I do." For
better or worse, teenagers are going to "do as you do."
In many homes today, teenagers are simply modeling themselves after
their parents, or other adults or so-called role models living in
their homes.
If you are a smoker and have kids, you really should stop smoking
before your kids pick up on your habit. If your teenagers have already
begun smoking cigarettes, you should set the example by demonstrating
to them how to quit smoking.
Peer Pressure
Another piece of the puzzle concerning why it is harder for teens to
quit smoking has to do with peer pressure.
Being accepted among one's peers is a powerful motivator for
adolescents. These young people wanting to fit in with their social
groups are at a high risk for behaviors such as smoking.
Oftentimes a teenager will smoke as a way of showing rebellion. Going
against school rules and parental rules by smoking can be seen as a
rite of passage in some teenage social circles.
Some teenagers smoke to be cool or to be independent but they all seem
to have the same desire to fit in with their peers, friends, or the
social group that they think is cool.
Advertising
Although you'll find lots of teenagers admitting to peer pressure as a
major reason for starting to smoke, other teenagers say cigarette
advertising also played a role in their decision to start smoking. You
can guess of course that folks in the tobacco industry blame many
other factors besides the advertisements they are spending billions of
dollars on.
Matthew Myers, president of Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, says that
the most important customers for tobacco companies are teenagers.
Advertising is used by tobacco companies to convince teenagers that
smoking is cool says Myers.
Cigarette ads tend to glamorize smoking by making smoking appear to be
cool and hip. According to psychologist John Pierce, PhD, of the
Cancer Prevention and Control Program at the University of California,
San Diego, "Cigarette advertising dissolves children's resistance to
smoking with entertaining graphics such as Joe Camel that present
smoking as fun, cool and a normal part of living the 'good life'."
These are just a few of the reasons that researchers feel that part of
the efforts to keep kids from smoking should focus on educating kids
about the manipulation of young people that is so prevalent in the
tobacco industry today.
Movies
Most of us as parents tend to underestimate the influence that movies
have on children. Even if we are educating our children to the fact
that smoking is unacceptable, having children see their heroes and
role models smoking in movies will tend to undermine our message.
Research has shown that the more children see their favorite movie
stars smoking in movies, the more likely they will begin smoking. It
is thought that 4 out of every 10 teenagers who smokes today were
influenced in some way by the smoking they saw in movies.
The attorneys general in 32 states have recently begun calling for the
major movie studios to include anti-smoking public service
announcements with all movies where people are shown smoking.
States the director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research at the
University of California at San Francisco, Stanton Glantz, filmmakers
are "delivering 400,000 kids a year to the tobacco industry, and
that's wrong. They're abusing their audiences, and their audience's
parents, and it's totally unnecessary."
Biology
It is known that nicotine has the ability to suppress one's appetite
and also your metabolism. These characteristics of nicotine make it a
popular diet tool primarily for teen girls as well as some women.
Studies conducted by the University of Michigan found that 14 year old
girls are two times as likely as boys to try smoking. The concerns
given by these girls were fears surrounding their weight.
A number of surveys have indicated that perhaps as much as 30% of
teenage girls as well as women give controlling their weight as one of
the main reasons for smoking.
States Dr. Margaret R. Rukstalis, a psychiatrist at the University of
Pennsylvania, specializing in addictive behaviors, "The relationship
between concerns about weight and smoking is dramatic."
And those teenagers who do begin experimenting with cigarettes can
become addicted to nicotine much more quickly than can adults. Young
brains, scientists seem to believe, are more receptive biologically to
nicotine. This makes it especially hard to stop smoking.
A report by the National Institute on Drug Abuse stated that some
adolescents can become addicted within days of beginning smoking. And
it also appears that adolescent girls get hooked on nicotine faster
then do adolescent boys.
Not Fully Aware of the Health Risks
If you are still wondering why is it harder for teens to quit smoking,
another reason may be that they are not quite fully aware of the
health risks of cigarette smoking.
A study recently conducted by the Centers for Disease Control stated
that teenagers who begin smoking not only significantly increase their
risk of developing lung cancer, but can early on begin showing signs
that will eventually lead to heart disease and stroke.
Estimates are that 80% of adults who are smokers today began smoking
as adolescents.
Although the health consequences of smoking cigarettes are known to us
as adults, many teens don't seem to be fully aware of the long-term
adverse health consequences of smoking.
It seems that kids are not fully able to grasp the concept of the
damaging effects of tobacco. A challenge for us as parents is to help
these kids begin to understand the long-term effects that smoking will
have on them.
What Can We Do
Most experts agree that parents play the most significant role in
their kid's decision to not smoke or to quit smoking.
By making it clear to their children that they disapprove of smoking,
parents can exert more influence on the behavior of their children
than they might think.
It has been shown that teenagers who feel as though their parents
would not approve of them smoking were less than half as likely to
smoke as kids having parents they thought didn't care. And those that
do smoke are more likely to give up smoking.
It is a great idea to get to know and become familiar with the friends
your teenager associates with. It is also a good idea to get to know
their friends' parents as well. Having your children's friends over on
a regular basis will help in that regard.
In addition, through the power of love for your kids, you can help
them overcome the negative influences that certain peer groups may
have over them. If your children senses that the love and support you
have for them is more important than the acceptance by their peer
group, they may very well choose your influence over that of their
peers.
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