This report presents the findings for the HSC component of the New Zealand Youth Tobacco Monitor. The survey explores 14 and 15-year-olds' smoking behaviours, and risk and protective factors associated with smoking. Topics include cessation, HSC interventions and youth culture.
Key Results
- Over two in five of participating students had ‘ever smoked’ a cigarette, even just on eor two puffs (44.0%)
- A smaller proportion of students in 2008 than in 2006 reported they had ‘ever smoked’ a cigarette, not even just a few puffs (44.0% and 49.7%, respectively)
- ‘Current smokers’ usually got their cigarettes from friends, from someone else who brought them or brought the cigarettes themselves (59.8%, 45.7% and 29.8%, respectively)
- Close to half of the ‘current smokers’ (47.0%) reported they wanted to stop smoking at the time of the survey
- Students reported their exposure to others’ smoking behaviour:
o 44.7% had other close friends who smoked, and 26.0% of their mother and 26.3% of their fathers smoked
o Around a third of the students (33.8%) reported at least one day a week when someone had smoked around them in their home. It was most likely to be their mother or father (46.1% and 36.6%, respectively)
o Just over a quarter (26.8%) reported that someone had smoked in their presence while travelling in a car or van in the seven days prior to the survey and almost two-thirds (63.0%) reported that people had smoked around them in places other than in their home.
- The majority of students believe cigarettes are harmful to their health and believe that smoking from other people’s cigarettes is also harmful to their health (93.7% and 93.2%, respectively)
- There was a increase in the proportions of students between 2006 and 2008 who showed an intention to definitely not smoke:
o a cigarette if offered one by their best friend (from 55.9% in 2006 to 62.9% in 2008)
o in the year following the survey (from 52.8% in 2006 to 60.8% in 2008)
o five years from the time of the survey (from 55.7% in 2006 to 64.5% in 2008).