Differences in Self-Efficacy for Smoking Cessation and Knowledge about Smoking Consequences among Adolescents

Abstract

Around 80% of the 1.3 billion tobacco users worldwide live in low- and middle-income countries where the burden of tobacco-related illness and death is heaviest. Tobacco use contributes to poverty by diverting household spending from basic needs such as food and shelter to tobacco. This spending behaviour is difficult to curb because tobacco is so addictive.A descriptive correlation conducted  conducted  frome 10th Novenber 2023 to 20th June 2024, study aimed To investigate the differences in knowledge about smoking consequences and Self-Efficacy for smoking cessation between the groups of grade, living arrangements, and family’s socioeconomic class.The study included a convenience sample of 400 high school students. The study instrument is composed of students’ sociodemographic sheet, Family’s Socioeconomic Status Scale, The Smoking: Self-Efficacy/Temptation Scale, and The Knowledge about the Consequences of Smoking Scale. Data were collected using a self-reported instrument for the period from February 15^th, 2024, to March 4^th, 2024. The study results reveal that there is a statistically significant difference in Self-Efficacy for smoking cessation among family’s socioeconomic class groups.The student researcher concluded that the socioeconomic status groups of the families differed in their levels of self-efficacy for quitting smoking in a statistically meaningful way. Further post hoc analysis demonstrated that students who are of families whose socioeconomic class is high enjoy greater Self-Efficacy of Smoking cessation. The student researcher recommends that there is a need for the community health nurses to initiate multisectoral collaborate with the raising of the knowledge of students about the deleterious consequences of smoking. There is a need for the community health nurses to collaborate with health officials in the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Work and Labor with the goal of protecting adolescents from the hazardous effects of smoking.