Skip Navigation


Health Promotion International Advance Access originally published online on September 5, 2005
Health Promotion International 2005 20(4):360-366; doi:10.1093/heapro/dai019
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
20/4/360    most recent
dai019v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Yuksel, H.
Right arrow Articles by Corbett, K. K.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Yuksel, H.
Right arrow Articles by Corbett, K. K.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?


© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Mixed messages: a qualitative study of the meanings and context of high school students' tobacco use in Turkey

Hulya Yuksel1 and Kitty K. Corbett2

1University of Dumlupinar, Dumlupinar, Turkey and 2Simon Fraser University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, West Mall Centre 2812, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6, Canada

Address for correspondence: Kitty K. Corbett, Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, West Mall Centre 2812, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, B.C. V5A 1S6, Canada, E-mail: kcorbett{at}sfu.ca

Although smoking by adults in Turkey is a widely practiced, socially accepted habit, social influences on tobacco uptake by Turkish youth have been studied little. This paper reports findings from interviews (42 10th graders plus 10 other students and 24 adults) and three focus groups in a study with high school students in Dursunbey, Turkey. Interviewees reported that youth smoking is not culturally acceptable, but that contradictory messages and pressures abound. A context in which smoking is embedded in men's and women's social environments influences many youth to become smokers. Smoking is expected of men by the time they enter military service or are economically independent. Smoking by women, especially professionals, is increasingly common. Although virtually all adults disapprove of youth's smoking as age-inappropriate behavior, ubiquitous counterexamples of adult smoking in homes, schools, coffee houses and media dilute tobacco controls. Few youth or adults expressed concern about the relationship of tobacco to health. Sanctions in family and school environments are little enforced. Students' smoking-related attitudes and behaviors appear modeled more after behavior of their teachers than their less-educated parents, and smoking is common by teachers at school. Reduction of smoking by Turkish youth calls for comprehensive, sustained programs to de-normalize tobacco use in family, school and other settings, with special attention to smoking uptake by young women.

Key words: smoking; adolescents; Turkey; qualitative methods


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.