Abstract:
Purpose: To identify the prevalence of smoking initiation and to examine factors related to smoking initiation among male lower secondary school students. Design: Descriptive correlational research. Methods: Subject were 210 male lower secondary school students studying in schools affiliated with the secondary education service area office 4, Pathum Tani province. Data were collected with self-administered questionnaires including stress test, attitude toward smoking and self-efficacy to avoid smoking. The reliability coefficients of the questionnaires were .80, .80 and .89, respectively. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Binary logistic regression. Findings: The findings of this study demonstrated that the prevalence of smoking initiation was 28.7%. The significant factors related to smoking initiation among male lower secondary school students were self-efficacy to avoid smoking (AOR = 2.41, 95% CI = 1.02-5.70), attitude toward smoking (AOR = 2.62, 95% CI = 1.10-6.31), and peer persuasion to smoking (AOR = 8.46, 95% CI = 3.46-20.68). Meanwhile, academic achievement, stress, parental smoking, sibling smoking, parental approval of smoking, peers smoking, cigarette accessibility, media accessibility and prevalence estimate were not related to smoking initiation. Conclusion: This study provided basic knowledge necessary for the development of effective preventive interventions for smoking initiation among male lower school students and adolescents.
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