Effects of an Empowerment Program on Nicotine Dependency, Temptation, Self-esteem, Depression in Adolescents Who Smoke

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of an empowerment program on nicotine dependency, temptation, self-esteem, and depression for adolescents who smoke.Methods: The study design was a quasi-experimental study with a nonequivalent control group, pre-post design.The participants were 49 adolescents who smoked.Twen ty-six adolescents were assigned to the experimental group and 23 to the control group.The intervention was conducted twice a week for 6 weeks.Chisquare test, t-test, paired-test, Wilcoxon rank sum test and Wilcoxon signed rank test were used to analyze the data.Results: After program, scores for self-esteem (t=5.560,p=.014), were significantly higher and scores for depression (t=-2.111,p=.040) were significantly lower for adolescents in the experimental group compared to adolescents in the control group.Conclusion:The finding indicate that the empowerment group training program was effective in improving self-esteem, and decreasing depression and could be considered as a positive program for smoking cessation for adolescents who smoke.