The Experience of Teen Smokers: The Emotions of Teenagers Involved and Emotional Reactions of Parents and Community

Abstract

More people are getting addicted to the habit of smoking nowadays and it is getting popular among children and teenagers. Many students from various schools were addicted to smoking and they needed intervention and treatment. Thus, this article will explore the emotions of teenagers after they get involved in smoking. It will also assess the emotional reactions of parents and the community after discovering their behaviour. Exploring these two issues is very important in planning smoking prevention programmes among teenagers and developing relevant psychoeducational modules. The researchers used qualitative method (in-depth interview) to get more detailed and in-depth responses from the participants, namely, teen smokers who are still in school. The researchers selected one of the schools in the state of Johor as the location of the study. Teenagers who have become addicted to smoking would experience a variety of emotions. These emotions are influenced by the reactions of their parents, friends, teachers and surrounding. Negative emotions may occur after they gain awareness of the dangers of smoking from the media and schools. However, many teenagers also feel comfortable with the habit because they feel relieved, less stressed out, and their anxieties faded away after smoking. Thus, the emotions they experience after getting addicted to smoking include (i) positive emotions, (ii) negative emotions, and (iii) neutral emotions. In short, community are supposed to react negatively if young people go astray and take the responsibility to lead them. Teenagers are experiencing an identity crisis that can cause them, if left unattended, to make mistakes in choosing peer groups. Thus, parents need to guide, coach and monitor them to assure positive growth of teenagers.