Peer Pressure and Adolescent Smoking
Both male and female participants said that they are often under pressure from their peers to
take up smoking. Some female participants said they avoid peers who smoke due to cultural
norms and community pressure. However, some male participants expressed a desire to
associate with their friends, irrespective of whether or not they smoked, and reported
experiencing difficulty in refusing to join in smoking.
Some male participants felt uncomfortable with allowing friends to smoke alone and said that
they wanted to be sociable. One participant said
Being with peer smoker without smoking put me into pressure of how he would think
about our relationship… always felt that I am not welcomed.
This put them in an awkward position, where they did not want to isolate themselves from peers
who smoke and neither did they wish to be ignored or teased for not smoking.