Onset of smoking habits: social influences observed in adolescents

RUNNING HEAD: smoking
Smoking
Name of Student
Name of University
Author note

smoking1
Onset of smoking habits: social influences observed in adolescents.
Response to question 1:
Kinard and Webster (2010) aims to study ‘The Effects of Advertising, Social Influences, and
Self‐Efficacy on Adolescent Tobacco Use and Alcohol Consumption’ that focuses on the
social modeling, observational influence of the peers and the parents on the onset of smoking
behavior amongst the adolescents. The impact of advertisement in the society and in the
young adolescents is huge and in the study, it is highlighted that these marketing campaigns
and advertisements where smoking is either explicitly or implicitly promoted plays a great
role in shaping of an adolescent’s smoking behavior (Gregersen et al., 2011). The study
emphasizes that the observing others, especially friends and seniors leads to an ‘observational
learning’ followed by a vicarious learning where the adolescent subject imitate the behavior
of others. In a part of the study, a qualitative analysis explores into the possibility of
observational learning being directly affected by a friend’s direct response or being assisted
by a parent, to the first experience of smoking (Henriksen et al., 2010). The study uses the
right methodologies and tools to understand the relationship between social influence and
onset of smoking behavior in the adolescents. The study finds out that adverse effect of
advertising on the minds of adolescents and the study holds the advertisements responsible
for the onset of smoking behavior in the adolescents. The study supports the fact that
government and social conduct policies should be strengthened in order to change the
smoking behavior in the adults.
Seo and Huang (2011) aims to study ‘Systematic Review of Social Network Analysis in
Adolescent Cigarette Smoking Behaviour’ and finds out the risk taking behaviours are greatly
influenced by the peer network structure and their access to smoking and related behaviours.
The study emphasizes on the peers more than any other relations and their influence as social