Abstract

OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this study was to investigate factors influencing the smoking behavior of adolescents, in order to provide basic data to develop a future nursing intervention program for smoking prevention.
METHODS
The study subjects were 162 adolescents attending high schools, who were living in K city. The instruments included the Self Esteem Scale translated by Jeon (1974), beliefs about the social rule scale developed by the Committee for Adolescence Guidance (1988), differential peer association developed by Krohn et. al. (1982), perceived behavioral control scale developed by Hanson (1997), intention of smoking scale developed by Newman et. al.(1982), and self-efficacy scale developed by Sherer et. al. (1982). The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient, and stepwise multiple regression.
RESULTS
1. The smoking behaviors of the subjects were significantly correlated with beliefs about social rule, perceived behavioral control, differential peer association, intention of smoking, self efficacy, grade, father's level of education, monthly pocket money, time of onset for smoking, degree of alcoholic intake, and drug abuse. 2. The multiple regression analysis revealed the most powerful predictor for smoking behavior was time of onset for smoking. A combination of beliefs about social rule, perceived behavioral control, grade, differential peer association, and intention of smoking accounted for 54.0% of the variance for smoking behavior in adolescents.
CONCLUSION
It is recommended that these influencing factors for smoking behavior be considered when developing future nursing intervention programs for the antismoking behaviors of adolescents.