An analysis of university students who are smokers according to their levels of addiction

Faculty of Education, Department of Mathematics and Science Education, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey

^a Corresponding author: cgercek@hacettepe.edu.tr

Abstract

Young people constitute one fifth of world population. Youth’s reasons for smoking include looking for excitement, getting away from problems and meeting emotional and social needs. Smoking addiction is the most common addiction among young people especially due to the fact that cigarettes are sold legally, and it is known that one out of two young people who try smoking become addicted. Being knowledgeable about youth’s smoking addiction will also raise the effects of health education activities. This study aims to evaluate the smoking addiction levels of university students who smoke. Thus, it uses survey model- which is one of quantitative research methods. The study group was composed of 93 volunteering university students chosen randomly. The research data were collected with Fagerström Nicotine Addiction Test. The data collected were put to descriptive analysis (percentages, frequencies, etc.). Accordingly, it was found that the majority of the participants had low or very low levels of smoking addiction, and that male students were more addicted than female students. The reason most commonly mentioned by the participants for taking up smoking was the circle of friends, while the reason for why they were smoking was their feeling of relaxation.