Ringkasan Jurnal

Summary of Psychology Journal

SMOKING BEHAVIOR ON ADOLESCENTS

ABSTRACT

The study of Smoking Behavior on Adolescents used many kinds of scale. Scale of Parent’s Permissiveness Attitude to smoking behavior, scale of peer influence, Scale of Psychological Satisfaction and Scale of Smoking Behavior. In this study, there were 75 male, aged 15-18 years and smokers.

The hypothesis was that parent’s permissiveness attitude to smoking behavior, scale of peer influence, psychological satisfaction was predictors toward smoking behavior on adolescents. This study showed that parent’s permissiveness and peer influence had the record of 38.4% on the effect of smoking behavior on adolescents.

As we know, smoking has bad effect on human, not only health but wealth also. The content inside a cigarette are tar, nicotine and other harmful ingredients. This kind of harmful ingredients may cause cancer, high blood pressure, lung damage, miscarriage and even death. The price for a box of cigarette is not cheap, how can adolescents afford it when they don’t have any personal income.

A smoker doesn’t only harm himself, but also endanger people around him. For a passive smoker, the risk to get infected is higher than an active smoker because passive smokers have low immunity to dangerous materials.

Even though human know that smoking is dangerous, they still smoke, this kind of activity is called “Phenomenal” because the number of smokers increase every year and the range of age is getting younger. Based on Kurt Lewin, he said that smoking behavior are environmental and individual functions.

Erickson said that adolescents who smoke may experience psychosocial crisis. Adolescents will try to find out what they are, and not all of the society can accept them well. Some adolescents smoke to symbolize (compensatory). Smoking is a symbol of strength, leadership and attractiveness.

Smoking for the first time will have the feeling of coughing, nausea, numb on tongue, but beginner smoker will deny this kind of feeling and finally become a smoker. A smoker is addicted to cigarette because of nicotine and this kind of addiction lead to dependency. Tobacco dependency describes a smoking behavior as an obsessive behavior. If smoker quits, it will cause stress to the smoker. Human are likely avoid discomfort and like to maintain the happiness in life. This theory explains why smokers cannot easily quit. Klinke and Meeker said that smokers’ motive is relaxation. They smoke to release tension, help to concentrate better.

According to Leventhal and Clearly, there are 4 steps in smoking behavior:

1.       Preparatory Stage.

2.       Initiation Stage

3.       Becoming A Smoker Stage

4.       Maintenance of Smoking Stage

Concept of socialization is a process to transmit values and beliefs from previous generation to the next generation. The purpose is to have a value system that can suit norms in society. Relationship in smoking behavior is parents that smoke do not realize that they can be the agent for their kids to follow this smoking behavior.

There are two kinds of social transmission, vertical and horizontal transmission. Vertical transmission is done by parents to their children and horizontal transmission is done by same age friends. In this study, vertical transmission refers to permissive parents toward smoking behavior and horizontal transmission refers to same age friends environmental.

In this research there are 3 factors that cause this smoking behavior on adolescents, psychological satisfaction, permissive parents and same age friends’ effect. Social cognitive learning theory by Bandura can explain this phenomenon.  This theory stated that individual behavior is caused by environmental, individual and cognitive. Smoking behavior is not only caused by imitation and positive reinforcement from family and society but because of consequences consideration of smoking behavior.

Adolescents needs and ego is high, they start to separate themselves from family and start to join with same age group. Need of acceptance to one group often cause adolescents to do anything, to be free from labeling.

HYPOTHESIS

Psychological satisfaction, parents’ permissive behavior toward smoking behavior and same age friends environmental are predictors to adolescents’ smoking behavior.

RESEARCH METHODS

A.      Research Variables’ Identification

1.       Criteria : smoking behavior

2.       Predictors:

a.        parents’ permissive behavior toward smoking

b.      same age friends environmental

c.       psychological satisfaction

B.      Research Variables’ Operational Definition

1.       Smoking behavior is a subject’s activity that can be measured with the intensity, place to smoke, time, and the function of smoking in daily life activity. This kind of measurement showed in Smoking Behavior Scale.

2.       Parents’ permissiveness behavior toward smoking behavior is a family acceptance for smoking. The higher score that a subject get, the bigger possibility of families’ effect on shaping smoking behavior. This measurement will be showed in Scale A

3.       Same age friends’ environmental is to see how many a subject has friends who smoke and they have positive acceptance to smoking behavior. This measurement will be showed in Scale B.

4.       Psychological satisfaction is an impact caused by the effect or happy feeling an individual gets from smoking. This will be showed in Scale C.

C.      Research Subjects

Subjects for this study are smoking male adolescents, age 15-18 years, who lived in Sosrowijayan Wetan Village, students from SMU Kolombo and SMU 9 Yogyakarta. This study involved 90 participants, but only 75 participants can be analyzed. Participants joined this study by their own willingness.

D.      Data Measurement Tool

There are 3 measurement tool used in this study. Scale A is used to measure parents’ permissiveness behavior, Scale B is used to measure same age friends’ environmental, Scale C is used to measure psychological satisfaction and Smoking Behavior Scale by Aritonang (1997).

The trial for this measurement tools is done to 60 students from SMU Pakem.    

E.       Data Analysis Technique

This study used multiple regression technique.

RESULT

The biggest predictor is psychological satisfaction with 40,9%, followed by parents’ permissiveness behavior and same age friends’ environmental with 38,4%. Based on multiple regression analysis, hypothesis cannot be accepted. But environmental factor give big impact to adolescents smoking behavior. This result support Theodorus’ research (1994) that smoker families have a big deal to affect their children to smoke too rather than non-smoker families.

Adolescents feel smoking have positive effect, such as comfort, satisfy, relax and warm. This positive effect has 92,555% than negative effect, such as sleepy, dizzy and bitterness which only has 7.45%.

Psychological satisfaction related to emotional aspects, emotional aspects related to smoking frequency. On the average, the smoker consumed 7 pieces of cigarette each day. In this study, it showed that a person smoke the most when they feel stress.

Based on the data, a adolescents start to smoke when they are in middle high school with 62.67% (early adolescents).

CONCLUSION

Smoking behavior is a learnt behavior. The learning process of smoking has begun since adolescent. Socialization is done vertically in the family and horizontally with friends and environmental. But the biggest contribution is psychological satisfaction and emotional consideration.

ADVICES

1.       If parents do not want their children to smoke then don’t smoke or don’t give positive reinforcement toward a smoking adolescents

2.       Parents should be cautious with their children ‘s friends

3.       Give affection rather than preventive or curative acts.