Why young people smoke

Deciding whether or not to smoke will ultimately be your child's decision. There are things that you can do which will help to make that decision the healthy option.

The reasons given by young people for starting to smoke are:

• Wanting to experiment with new things

• Wanting to look cool and grown up

• Joining in with what their friends are doing

• Demonstrating their independence

• Helping to cope with stress

For the young person, these are very valid reasons and parents can help by communicating effectively some basic rules and guidelines which provide them with stability during adolescence which is a time of great turbulence and change for young people.

It may be of interest to you to see the ongoing results of our "Why do young people smoke?" survey on this site.

See survey