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Smoking among young adults: examining
the relationship between smoking cigarettes
and social life
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Abstract
The goal of this qualitative study was to investigate the effect of smoking
cigarettes on the social lives of young adult smokers. Does smoking enhance one’s social
life? There must be social benefits to smoking as young adults start smoking and keep the
habit, despite being aware of the hazardous health issues associated with smoking.
Research was conducted at Vanier College throughout a three-month semester. A sample
of 10 students among all smokers attending the college were interviewed and selected
randomly. Findings notably include the cigarette’s use as a social tool to engage in social
interaction, social identity and the emergence and significance of social smoking. These
findings clarify the social roles of smoking cigarettes and can be used by anti smoking
campaigns, clinicians, social scientists and for further research.
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Introduction
In modern western culture, smoking cigarettes is an ongoing trend as millions of
people from the western world have taken up this habit. Up until the latter half of the
twentieth century, smoking was not regarded as a health issue. As research about
smoking progressed, smoking proved to be very harmful to the health, which is
understood in society today. Yet, adolescents and young adults start to smoke and keep
the habit despite being aware of the negative health issues associated with smoking. With
that being said, there must be some benefits to smoking. To uncover this, I was interested
in investigating the relationship between smoking and social life. Does smoking enhance
social life? If there is no health benefit linked to smoking, and if smoking can be a social
activity, then there must be social benefits linked to smoking.
The social identity theory (SIT) states that individuals identify themselves to
social groups. In other words a person’s sense of who they are is based on their group
membership. This provides a social motif for smoking as people smoke to fit in their
social groups. Peer pressure stems from this theory as well, but in the opposite direction
as group members pressure a non-group member to smoke and ultimately invite the non-
group member to join this social group.
The independent and dependent variables tested in this study are smoking and
social life respectively. A smoker is measured as an individual who smokes at least one
cigarette per week, on average. Social life is defined by the quality and quantity of social
interactions, relationships/friendships and social activities.
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Literature Review
For the purpose of this research project, I conducted a literature review. This
literature review focuses on research that connects cigarette smoking with social life
among young adults.
The qualitative study entitled “Smoking in the lived world: How young people
make sense of the social roles cigarettes play in their lives” by Fry, Grogan, Gough &
Conner investigates the social role of smoking cigarettes through the perception of young
people. Furthermore, this study clarifies why people start smoking, continue smoking and
the problems they perceive in stopping smoking (Fry, Grogan, Gough & Conner, 765,
2008). The motivation behind the study is to understand how anti-smoking campaigns
might be more effectively targeted (Fry, Grogan, Gough & Conner, 766, 2008).
The negative consequences of smoking are well known to young people. For
example, the earlier one smokes, the greater the risk of disease or illness in the future.
The notion that young people still continue to smoke, then, is linked to social benefits
(Fry, Grogan, Gough & Conner, 765, 2008). Also, according to the theory of planned
behavior, people intend to engage in a certain activity, and so smokers convince others to
want to engage in smoking (Fry, Grogan, Gough & Conner, 764, 2008). In addition,
according to the social identity theory, individuals associate themselves with groups, and
therefore individuals associate themselves with smoking groups (Fry, Grogan, Gough &
Conner, 764, 2008). Moreover, smoking helps people develop the “cool” identity,
especially in girls who are more concerned about popularity and social status (Fry,
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Grogan, Gough & Conner, 765, 2008). In essence, social factors are suggested to play a
major role in smoking motives amongst young people.
The study’s methodology consisted of having 22 interview sessions of focus
groups sorted by gender, academic institution and smoking status. The focus groups
consist of 3-7 participants per group, whereby individuals explain their lived experiences
and understanding of social factors involved in smoking cigarettes (Fry, Grogan, Gough
& Conner, 766, 2008).
The study’s sample included 87 males and females aged between 16 and 24 years,
both smokers and non-smokers, from high schools and a university in Yorkshire (Fry,
Grogan, Gough & Conner, 766, 2008).
Findings confirm that the social identity theory plays a role in young people
smoking, as the activity facilitates the social interaction of peers, particularly when
meeting people for the first time. Cigarettes function as the markers for collective identity
to which young people associate themselves (Fry, Grogan, Gough & Conner, 777, 2008).
Similarly, research shows that within same sex peer groups (especially in young women),
smoking gives off the “cool” and “macho” image that young people within the groups are
pressured to acquire (Fry, Grogan, Gough & Conner, 776, 2008). Moreover, smoking is
simply a means of relieving boredom in young peoples’ daily lives. When young people
feel like there is nothing to do, they light up a cigarette not to undergo the stress of
feeling bored (Fry, Grogan, Gough & Conner, 776, 2008).
The hypotheses were proven to be correct to an even further degree than was
expected. Young people do not consider smoking to be only a biological addiction. A
vast amount of social factors directly influence the persistence of smoking at least as
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much as the biological craving for nicotine does. In other words, this study shows that
young people mostly feel the need to smoke because of the social role smoking plays in
their lives. To avoid smoking, these social norms must be assessed and subjectively
changed. One alternative is finding another source of coolness, such as taking an interest
in sport, instead of smoking (Fry, Grogan, Gough & Conner, 778, 2008). Another
suggestion is replacing the social benefits of smoking within a peer group with another
social activity, such as cracking jokes or playing music (Fry, Grogan, Gough & Conner,
778, 2008). These activities establish peer bonds without the need of a cigarette.
This aim of the study called “Disentangling social selection and social influence
effects on adolescent smoking: the importance of reciprocity in friendships” by Mercken,
Candel, Willems & deVries is to examine social selection and social influence within
reciprocal and non-reciprocal friendships, and the role of parents and siblings as factors
explaining similarity of smoking behavior among adolescent friends (Mercken, Candel,
Willems & deVries, 2007, 1483).
Smoking behavior is similar among friends because of social selection and/or
social influence (Mercken, Candel, Willems & deVries, 2007, 1483). First, when
smoking behavior within established adolescent friendships becomes similar, social
influence occurs, due to pressure from friends, or an external influence that the groups of
friends undergo. Furthermore, children with smoking parent(s) are more likely to smoke,
which is also a product of social influence, in this case stemming from parents. The
influence factor is then an explanation to why relationships like friends and family cause
similar smoking behavior. In addition, peer selection plays an important role in
adolescent smoking behavior (Mercken, Candel, Willems & deVries, 2007, 1483). People
befriend others with common likes and/or hobbies, such as smoking. Commonly,
smokers select smoking friends and non-smokers select non-smoking friends (Mercken,
Candel, Willems & deVries, 2007, 1483). The selection hypothesis then explains that
smoking behavior promotes friendships. In order to obtain a more accurate understanding
of smoking behavior, friendship changes must be taken into account (Mercken, Candel,
Willems & deVries, 2007, 1484). Also, studies suggest differences in smoking behavior
among friends between reciprocal relationships and non-reciprocal ones. Reciprocal
friendships mean higher friendship quality, which gives more opportunity for influence
processes among friends with similar smoking behavior (Mercken, Candel, Willems &
deVries, 2007, 1484).
The methodology used in this study consisted of distributing questionnaires
