Cigarette Smoking among Adolescents: Role of Hardiness and Self Esteem.

Abstract

Cigarette smoking has long been recognised as a major public health problem and the single most preventable cause of death. Cigarette smoking among adolescents has been the focus of various research studies in the past decade. Preventing cigarette smoking among adolescents is neither a new problem nor new challenge for Therapists, Researchers and Mental Health Professionals. Various psychosocial correlates exert significant influences on smoking among adolescents. The present paper attempts to investigate the relationship of Hardiness and Self Esteem as psychological correlates of cigarette smoking. For this purpose 100 male cigarette smokers in the age range (13-18 years) as participants were included in the study. The questionnaire of Nicotine Dependence by Taylor and Francis (1991), Hardiness by kobasa (1984) and Self Esteem by Marilyn J Sorenson (2006) were administered to the participants. The correlational analysis was conducted and it revealed that hardiness was found to be negatively correlated with cigarette smoking in a significant manner, however the self esteem though negatively correlated but not significant with cigarette smoking. Adolescents with welldeveloped hardiness trait and high self-esteem has less chance or negatively associated with risky behaviour such as cigarette smoking. The implications for future research were addressed.