Smoking among Romanian adolescents: do the gender differences exist?

Abstract

Lucia M. Lotrean1, Ilse Mesters2, Carmen Ionut1, Hein de Vries2

1Department of Environmental Health, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
2Department of Health Education and Promotion, University of Maastricht, the Netherlands

Contact: Lucia Lotrean, llotrean@umfcluj.ro

ABSTRACT

A cross-sectional research study was carried out among Romanian adolescents to identify gender differences in beliefs and behaviour regarding smoking. A written survey was conducted among 473 students aged 15-17 years from 5 senior high schools in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. All students filled in a questionnaire which assessed their smoking-related behaviour. The results show that one quarter (24.5%) of the subjects were smokers, a significant differences was noticed, regarding the prevalence of smoking between boys (32.2%) and girls (20.9%). Smoking behaviour served a stronger function for smoking girls to remain slim, while smoking boys had stronger beliefs that smoking helped them to relax. Self-efficacy expectations to handle emotional situations without smoking were significantly lower in smoking girls than in smoking boys. Moreover, in comparison with non-smoking boys, non-smoking girls reported low self-efficacy to maintain their non-smoking status when upset, depressed or nervous, and a stronger intention to start smoking than non-smoking boys. Non-smoking boys reported stronger pressures to smoke from their peers in the same school year. These findings have several implications for smoking prevention and reduction activities in Romania. First, smoking prevention programs should strengthen positive attitudes towards non-smoking, resistance against peer influences and enhance self-efficacy beliefs. Second, smoking prevention and reduction activities should address the fact that smoking is seen by Romanian girls as a way to control their weight, and as a way to relax by boys, and thus need to offer other healthier alternatives to realize these outcomes. Additionally, they need to address strategies to cope with emotional situations, in particular for girls.
Key words: smoking, Romanian adolescents, gender differences

Article