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Essay on Cigarette Smoking as a deviant behavior
Cigarette smoking among teenagers has become an increasing problem during the past decades. Modern studies indicated that about one-third of senior high school students reported having smoked cigarettes. It has been projected that an extensive accessibility of cigarettes to minors along with communal pressure for educational achievement might put in to rising use.
Researchers have attempted to clarify the beginning of cigarette smoking among adolescents based on theories of social learning and stress/coping. The social learning perception postulates that sway of parents and peers on adolescents' cigarette smoking is a behavior learned by modeling and social strengthening. The most dependable and powerful predictor is whether their friends smoke. The other significant influence is family; adolescents are more probable to smoke cigarettes if their parents smoke. A current study found that lifetime parental smoking was robustly linked with adolescent smoking. As young people develop, parents usually become less dominant as compared with peers. Studies focusing on adolescent drug use find a conversion in the strength of influence on drug use from parents to peers. Researchers have time and again reported that peers have a superior influence on adolescents' substance use than do parents.
According to the stress/coping theory, adolescents engage in cigarette smoking to alleviate depression and tension, and escape from problems. Adolescents are mainly exposed to stress as they suffer internal changes (anatomical, natural, and emotional) at the same time as experiencing external changes in the family, school, or peer group. In the current society academic performance is of great significance. Consequently, young people experience great stress with regard to general academic demands or preparation for college. This bigger stress may have contributed to increased cigarette smoking by adolescents. For instance, in a longitudinal study examining the effects of school failure on delinquency and psychological distress, they found that school failure is associated with psychological distress and antisocial activities.....
