Identifying social,psychological and demographic factors leading to smoking initiation in college boys

Objectives: to identify social,psychological and demographic risk factors of cigarette smoking in college boys. methodology: cross-sectional research design was used in this research. purposive sampling technique was used for data collection. sample of total 500 (smokers = 350,non-smokers = 150) was obtained from 10 public colleges of lahore city. a comprehensive self-structured questionnaire which contained items related to social,psychological and demographic information was prepare and employed for data collection. descriptive statistics,alpha reliability analysis,chi-square,and logistic regression model were carried out for data analyses. results: significant positive association of group pressure (χ2 =14.52),modeling (χ2 =12.93),social deviance (χ2 =10.70),advertisement propaganda (χ2 =05.16),fashion (χ2 =14.65) and easy availability (χ2 =06.33) was found with smoking initiation in college boys. similarly,psychological factors of curiosity (χ2 = 12.84),stress-reduction (χ2 = 14.71),depression (χ2 = 04.92),pats (χ2 = 09.46) and competion with friends (χ2 = 03.02) were found. social factors (b =.57,or=1.62,95% ci,1.40-1.87,p<.001),psychological factors (b =.21,or=1.45,95% ci,1.02-1.70,p<.05),and demographic factors of father’s smoking behavior (b =.39,or=1.51,95% ci,1.30-2.10,p<.01),friend who smoke (b =.58,or=2.89,95% ci,1.45-3.72,p<.001),and monthly pocket money (b =.48,or=1.55,95% ci,1.08-2.12,p<.001) were found. conclusion: social,psychological and demographic variables are significantly associated with smoking behavior in college boys. © 2016,postgraduate medical institute. all rights reserved.