The problem of tobacco use remains one of the most acute for several decades. It is connected with significant medical and social consequences of this phenomenon, wide spread of fatal complications connected with smoking. Of particular importance is tobacco use among adolescents because it is fraught with the development of much more serious disorders of body systems. Adolescents who smoke or use tobacco in other forms have problems with metabolic processes in the body, especially the ones with the absorption of vitamins A, B1, B6, and B12. This is the reason that the overall development is retarded, and growth slows down. Because smoking often develops anemia, as well as myopia, inflammatory processes occur in the nasopharynx.
Large-scale studies covering a purposive sample of adolescents have been presented to determine the prevalence of smoking and to evaluate existing mechanisms of smoking control. Scientists have noted the formation of more severe nicotine addiction, especially when adolescents use e-cigarettes and hookah as alternatives to traditional smoking (Essau & Delfabbro, 2020). This makes it urgent to fight all forms of tobacco and nicotine use in order to preserve the health of adolescents.
Typical members of this social group are young girls and men aged 14 to 17 who live in middle-class, full families and are in school. The interest in tobacco addiction among these people was caused by the fact that a superficial analysis may not find prerequisites for such deviations (Essau & Delfabbro, 2020). Their families are considered to be financially and structurally sound, and they do not grow up in a dysfunctional environment that encourages tobacco use as a way of adapting to a difficult environment.
The overriding reasons for this social group are the need for new sensations, interests, and the desire to imitate adults. Moreover, often such means as hookah and vaping become factors uniting companies, as this type of tobacco is often used in groups. These kinds of chemical addictions become romanticized as traits of an intense life (Weinberger, 2022). Although the harms of smoking are a well-known fact for teenagers, alternative forms of tobacco use are viewed, on the contrary, as relatively safe and sometimes even helpful (Desai, 2020). This stereotype is largely due to successful advertising campaigns on the part of vape and hookah manufacturers. The effects of chewing tobacco remain largely unknown to young people.
Teenagers’ low awareness of the harms of all types of tobacco is a key factor in the need to develop educational programs devoted to this topic. School teachers, guidance counselors, and medical staff who conduct routine screenings of students can be the people in charge of implementing the plan. Their task is to use a variety of interactions to break the stereotype that alternative forms of tobacco use are harmless.
The most effective forms include the use of informational posters in schools and clinics, joint trips with students to pulmonology departments, and conversations with doctors who practice treatment of respiratory tract affected by tobacco use. It is not unimportant to organize project works among students who need to study the mechanisms of effects of vaping and hookah on the body systems. If the idea that smoking is harmful is trivial, the idea that all tobacco products are equally harmful is new to teenagers and may arouse increased interest.
For those who have an established addiction, the steps to break free from it should be explained in detail. Teachers can also provide information on breathing exercises and various activities that help them recover from the harms of tobacco. People in the study population are financially able to afford a variety of recreational activities. Therefore, educators need to make sure that when a student stops using substances, he or she can refocus on something useful, including sports, art, or science.
In case when a child has no obvious deviations in the family and there is no information about psychological traumas suffered, the reason for the addiction is the absence of meaningful activities in life. Therefore, those who have special difficulties with quitting tobacco need individual psychological and pedagogical support (Essau & Delfabbro, 2020). Conversation with a therapist and teacher should help the student feel the significance of his or her steps and open up new perspectives. An important result of such work is the teenager’s conscious desire to lead a healthy lifestyle.
Thus, the plan of work with this social group includes thematic lessons, giving information about the mechanisms of influence of different forms of tobacco on the body. Within the framework of the program, an obligatory point is cooperation with doctors, who, based on real stories of patients, can demonstrate the harm of such addiction. It is also necessary to introduce project activities that imply the independent and deeper study of the problem by students. The plan has several goals, the primary ones being reducing more than half the number of adolescents who use tobacco within six months and increasing the percentage of students interested in the problem by more than 60 percent over the same period. Halving the percentage of people who miss physical education classes because of breathing problems during the school year will also be an important indicator.
Reference
Desai, A. N. (2020). Preventing tobacco use in children and adolescents. JAMA, 323(16), 1626.
Essau, A. C., & Delfabbro, P. (2020). Adolescent addiction: Epidemiology, assessment, and treatment (2nd ed.). Academic Press.
Weinberger, A. H. (2022). Socioeconomic status and tobacco use.Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 24(6), 805–806.