Smoking Decisions from a Teen Perspective: A Narrative Study

OBJECTIVE: To explore the transitional phase between experimental and regular smoking from the perspective of teens. METHOD: Narrative analysis of semistructured, individual interviews. RESULTS: The need to belong and immediate social gain are major themes influencing teen smoking decisions. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings have significance for public health workers planning and implementing tobacco-use prevention programs aimed at teens whose smoking behaviors are not yet determined by nicotine addiction. How such programs have been traditionally framed and the ways in which peer influence and risk behaviors have been addressed may be largely irrelevant to the rationale of the adolescents themselves.