Exploring children's conceptions of smoking addiction

Tobacco addiction is a major health problem for both adults and young people--between 20 and 60% of adolescents are dependent on nicotine and more than two-thirds who attempt to quit experience withdrawal symptoms. Yet, anti-smoking efforts targeted at children emphasize primary prevention and ignore addiction education, which is generally considered relevant only to adult smoking and cessation efforts. This study reports children's concepts of smoking and addiction from interviews with 32 Western Australian boys and girls, aged 9-10 years, all non-smokers. Results suggest children's concepts of smoking addiction may influence attitudes toward smoking trials. Children who thought addiction happened immediately were committed to never smoke at all. Others who thought addiction happened after several cigarettes expressed intentions to experiment. These children believed they could avoid addiction by smoking less than the number of cigarettes that caused addiction. Children who defined addiction as 'liking' or 'enjoying the taste of cigarettes' believed they could avoid being 'hooked' as long as they managed to avoid enjoying the experience. Recent findings that children can get 'hooked' within a few days of smoking highlight the importance of addiction strategies targeted at children, particularly in relation to influencing intentions to experiment with smoking.