Do Teens Want To Quit Smoking?
In the past ten years, smoking declined among the adult population, but not among teens (Lamkin, Davis, Kamen, 1998). While most teens who smoke want to quit, they lack the ability or support necessary to quit smoking. Most adolescents who smoke have made numerous and usually unsuccessful attempts to quit smoking. The 1997 YRBS indicated that almost 73% of students who had ever smoked daily tried to quit smoking (CDC, 1998b). Among high school seniors in 1976-1988, 44% believed they would not be smoking 5 years later but at 5-6 year follow-up, 73% remained daily smokers (USDHHS, 1994). According to a national survey, only about 1.5% of adolescents who ever smoked were successful at quitting. (Moss et al., 1992). While social reasons such as ‘to bond with peers’ and ‘to appear mature’ are strong influences for adolescents to smoke, nicotine addiction seems to be the better predictor of continued use (Perry & Staufacker, 1996). Because of the high prevalence of smoking among adolescents
