Determinants of smoking prevention behavior of senior high school students: A short report

With Indonesia ranking top in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for the number of smokers aged 13-15 years, this study aims to analyze the factors associated with smoking prevention behavior among students of senior high school.

This cross-sectional pilot study, conducted in 2022 with 90 samples of grade 10-11 students at SMA Negeri 1 Taman Sidoarjo East Java Indonesia, examined variables such as perceived vulnerability (the belief about the risk of experiencing a health issue), severity (the belief about the seriousness of the health issue), benefits (the belief in the benefit of taking preventive actions), barriers (the perceived obstacles to performing preventive behaviors), self-efficacy (the confidence in one's ability to perform preventive behaviors successfully), and cues to action (factors that trigger the decision to engage) in relation to health behaviors. Data were analyzed using the chi-squared test.

The chi-squared analysis showed significant associations between several factors and smoking prevention behavior. For perceived susceptibility, 34.4% with high susceptibility had good behavior, and 13.3% had not good behavior (p=0.000). For perceived severity, 33.3% with high severity exhibited good behavior, and 21% had not good behavior (p=0.002). Regarding perceived benefits, 28.9% with high benefits showed good behavior, while 22.6% had not good behavior (p=0.018). Self-efficacy indicated 36.7% with high self-efficacy demonstrated good behavior versus 25.8% with not good behavior (p=0.001). Cues to action revealed that 28.9% with high cues had good behavior, and 18.9% did not have good behavior (p=0.003). No association was found for perceived barriers (p=0.386).

The level of smoking prevention behavior is influenced by perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, self-efficacy, and cues to action. Therefore, more intensive and targeted efforts are needed to promote awareness of the dangers of smoking and to enhance adolescents' self-efficacy in preventing smoking.