Cigarette smoking among secondary school children in 1975: its prevalence and some of the factors that promote smoking

Abstract

A QUESTIONNAIRE relating to smoking habits, respiratory symptoms and health attitudes was ad ministered to 10,498 secondary school children in 1975. The results reported in this paper suggest that the prev alence of smoking in boys, when compared with pre vious studies, has fallen, while in girls it has remained steady. Despite this, boys continue to smoke more heavily and at an earlier age than girls. The factors demonstrated which would appear to in fluence smoking rates in clude parental, sibling and peer smoking habits, amount of income from both pocket money and part-time ear nings, immigration and, to a lesser extent, academic achievement.