Social smoking phenomena: Reports of increasing tobacco behaviors among females transitioning to adulthood

Smoking is one of many risky behaviors by young adults that often depend on peer behavior. Likely, an increase in smoking behavior during young adulthood is due to social smoking. Social smoking has been identified as a behavior by a group of individuals “who smoke mainly in social situations, do not believe that they are addicted to smoking, and are concerned about the social acceptability of their smoking” (Moran et. al, 2004). This study was conducted to assess adolescent and young adult females to better understand smoking behaviors. Using qualitative interviews conducted by a trained interviewer, participants (n=16) who had just graduated high school spent approximately one hour discussing risky health behaviors. One year follow-up interviews were also conducted (n=12) to assess early transition to adulthood. Approximately one-third of the participants (n=4, 33.33%) reported being current smokers at the one year follow-up, nearly tripling from year 1 responses (n=2; 12.5%). More than half of the respondents (n=7, 58.33%) also reported that their friends smoked cigarettes in comparison with 50% (n=8) reported from year 1. Fifty percent of the respondents (n=6) reported having tried hookah at follow-up compared with 43.75% (n=7) during year 1. Of those individuals, three (50%) respondents reported first time hookah use with 100% of them enrolled in college. It appears that initiation and maintenance of smoking behavior can be related to an increase in social smoking among young adults. Understanding smoking behavior and social smoking is essential in providing tailored interventions targeted at this public health problem.