Indonesian adolescents’ perspectives on smoking habits: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of smoking among adolescents is high in Indonesia. Therefore, this qualitative research aimed to explore the perspectives of Muslim adolescents on smoking habits as a reference for developing effective prevention programs. METHODS: Three focus group discussions involving 24 junior high school male students (mean age = 13.75 years) were the main source of data for this phenomenological qualitative study. The discussion guide was developed by the researchers based on the reviewed literature and validated by experts. The research findings were analyzed using an inductive content analysis with systematic steps based on the stages of qualitative data analysis. RESULTS: Adolescent perspectives on smoking were grouped into two themes: perception of smoking and smoking-related factors. The perception of smoking encompassed three sub-themes: smoking as a social habit, contradictive feelings, and the Islamic perspective. The smoking-related factors included peer pressure, the parents’ smoking status, masculinity and curiosity. The results indicated that adolescents consider smoking as a social habit but with contradictory feelings. The smoking habit was also stimulated by peer pressure, imitating parents who smoke, feeling masculine and curiosity. CONCLUSION: We suggest that health professionals who are interested in developing smoking prevention programs in Indonesia should consider the adolescent perspective on smoking so that the prevention program will be more effective and appropriate for adolescents.