Indonesian adolescents’ perspectives on smoking habits as a reference for a prevention program: a qualitative study

Abstract

Background: Religious factors have been used in tobacco control campaigns. However, the prevalence of smoking among adolescents is still high in some countries, especially in Indonesia. 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 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 method with systematic steps based on the stages of qualitative data analysis.Results: Adolescent perspectives on smoking were grouped into two themes: (a) perception, which encompassed three sub-themes: smoking as a social habit, contradictive feelings, and the Islamic perspective; (b) smoking-related factors involving peer pressure, the parents’ smoking status, curiosity, and masculinity.Conclusion: The results indicated that adolescents consider smoking as a social habit but with contradictive feelings. From an Islamic perspective, smoking is not forbidden by the religion’s beliefs. The smoking habit was also stimulated by peer pressure, imitating parents who smoke, curiosity, and feeling masculine. We suggest that health professionals who are interested in developing smoking prevention programs should consider the adolescent perspective on smoking so that the prevention program will be more effective and appropriate for adolescents.