Cargando…

Snus user identity and addiction. A Swedish focus group study on adolescents

BACKGROUND: The teenage years are the years when adolescents seek their identity, and part of this involves experimenting with tobacco. The use of tobacco as such, and norms among their friends, is more important to the adolescents than the norms of parents when it comes to using tobacco or not. The...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Edvardsson, Ingrid, Troein, Margareta, Ejlertsson, Göran, Lendahls, Lena
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3515430/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23148521
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-975
_version_ 1782252178685034496
author Edvardsson, Ingrid
Troein, Margareta
Ejlertsson, Göran
Lendahls, Lena
author_facet Edvardsson, Ingrid
Troein, Margareta
Ejlertsson, Göran
Lendahls, Lena
author_sort Edvardsson, Ingrid
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The teenage years are the years when adolescents seek their identity, and part of this involves experimenting with tobacco. The use of tobacco as such, and norms among their friends, is more important to the adolescents than the norms of parents when it comes to using tobacco or not. The aim was to explore the significance of using snus for adolescents, and attitudes to snus, as well as the reasons why they began using snus and what maintained and facilitated the use of snus. METHODS: Adolescents who use snus were interviewed in focus groups. The material was analysed using content analysis. RESULTS: Four groups of boys and one group of girls were interviewed, a total of 27 students from the upper secondary vocational program. Three themes related to the students’ opinions on and experiences of using snus were found: Circumstances pertaining to snus debut indicate what makes them start using snus. Upholding, which focuses on the problem of becoming addicted and development of identity, and approach, where the adolescents reflect on their snus habits in relation to those around them. A number of factors were described as relevant to behaviour and norm building for the development into becoming a snus user. Attitudes and actions from adults and friends as well as – for the boys – development of an identity as a man and a craftsman influenced behaviour. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that development of identity was of major importance when adolescents start using snus. The adolescents were initially unable to interpret the early symptoms of abstinence problems, but subsequently became well aware of being addicted. Once they were stuck in addiction and in the creation of an image and identity, it was difficult to stop using snus. These factors are important when considering interventions of normative changes and tobacco prevention in schools as well as among parents.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-3515430
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2012
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-35154302012-12-06 Snus user identity and addiction. A Swedish focus group study on adolescents Edvardsson, Ingrid Troein, Margareta Ejlertsson, Göran Lendahls, Lena BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: The teenage years are the years when adolescents seek their identity, and part of this involves experimenting with tobacco. The use of tobacco as such, and norms among their friends, is more important to the adolescents than the norms of parents when it comes to using tobacco or not. The aim was to explore the significance of using snus for adolescents, and attitudes to snus, as well as the reasons why they began using snus and what maintained and facilitated the use of snus. METHODS: Adolescents who use snus were interviewed in focus groups. The material was analysed using content analysis. RESULTS: Four groups of boys and one group of girls were interviewed, a total of 27 students from the upper secondary vocational program. Three themes related to the students’ opinions on and experiences of using snus were found: Circumstances pertaining to snus debut indicate what makes them start using snus. Upholding, which focuses on the problem of becoming addicted and development of identity, and approach, where the adolescents reflect on their snus habits in relation to those around them. A number of factors were described as relevant to behaviour and norm building for the development into becoming a snus user. Attitudes and actions from adults and friends as well as – for the boys – development of an identity as a man and a craftsman influenced behaviour. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that development of identity was of major importance when adolescents start using snus. The adolescents were initially unable to interpret the early symptoms of abstinence problems, but subsequently became well aware of being addicted. Once they were stuck in addiction and in the creation of an image and identity, it was difficult to stop using snus. These factors are important when considering interventions of normative changes and tobacco prevention in schools as well as among parents. BioMed Central 2012-11-13 /pmc/articles/PMC3515430/ /pubmed/23148521 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-975 Text en Copyright ©2012 Edvardsson et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Edvardsson, Ingrid
Troein, Margareta
Ejlertsson, Göran
Lendahls, Lena
Snus user identity and addiction. A Swedish focus group study on adolescents
title Snus user identity and addiction. A Swedish focus group study on adolescents
title_full Snus user identity and addiction. A Swedish focus group study on adolescents
title_fullStr Snus user identity and addiction. A Swedish focus group study on adolescents
title_full_unstemmed Snus user identity and addiction. A Swedish focus group study on adolescents
title_short Snus user identity and addiction. A Swedish focus group study on adolescents
title_sort snus user identity and addiction. a swedish focus group study on adolescents
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3515430/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23148521
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-975
work_keys_str_mv AT edvardssoningrid snususeridentityandaddictionaswedishfocusgroupstudyonadolescents
AT troeinmargareta snususeridentityandaddictionaswedishfocusgroupstudyonadolescents
AT ejlertssongoran snususeridentityandaddictionaswedishfocusgroupstudyonadolescents
AT lendahlslena snususeridentityandaddictionaswedishfocusgroupstudyonadolescents