An Investigation Into The Smoking Habit Among Senior Secondary School Students

Project and Seminar Material for Sociology

Abstract

This study titled “an investigation into the smoking habit among senior secondary school students in Bwari Area Council Abuja.” The study aimed to examine the prevalence of smoking habit among senior secondary school students, identify the major factors influencing students’ involvement in smoking, determine the perceived effects of smoking on students’ health, and to determine the effects of smoking on the academic performance of students in Bwari Area Council Abuja. The research design was descriptive with a population of 3,200 students in the selected public secondary schools in Bwari Area Council Abuja and a sample size of 356 was achieved using a Taro Yamane formula. A multi-stage sampling method was used with the use of stratified and convenience sampling to guarantee that gender, age, and classes were well represented. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data to respond to questions relating to the smoking behavior, factors, health effects, and academic effects. Data were presented through descriptive statistics like frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation and hypothesis testing was done using inferential statistics like Chi-square, Logistic Regression and ANOVA. The findings revealed that 30.3 percent of the students had ever smoked a cigarette and 69.7 percent never, 11.8 percent of the students smoked regularly and 15.7 percent occasionally. Logistic regression analysis indicated that peer pressure (p = 0.007), family background (p = 0.045), media influence (p = 0.048), curiosity (p = 0.010), and availability of cigarettes (p = 0.050) had significant influence on smoking where as academic stress (p = 0.442) did not. The results of ANOVA showed significance in perceived health effects (p = 0.002) and academic effects (p = 0.001), which proved that smoking has negative impacts on health and performance. Based on these findings, it was recommended that schools should profound the policies against smoking in place, parents should enhance their guidance, media need to regulate what it portrays to be pro-smoking and health education programs need to be incorporated into the school curriculum to sensitize the students.

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