Relationship between Life Skills and Smoking Status in Male Students of Ilam High School in the 2017

Abstract

Abstract Background and Objectives: Teaching life skills is one of the ways to cope with stressful situations and high-risk behaviors. Therefore, considering the importance of life skills in dealing with high-risk behaviors such as smoking, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between Life skills and cigarette smoking status in male students of Ilam city. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study was conducted on male students of Ilam High School by using simple random sampling. The data gathering tool was a questionnaire. After completing the questionnaires, the data were analyzed using SPSS version 22 software and descriptive statistics (frequency and percentage, mean and standard deviation) as well as analytical statistics (Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis and Spearman correlation tests). Results: The mean age of students was 13.58 years, the mean was 17.95 and the mean age of the beginning of smoking was 11.27. The mean score of knowledge about harmful effect of smoking is 82.18 of 100, which indicates a high level of awareness about the harmful effects of smoking. The mean score of attitude toward smoking was 32.6 of 100, which indicates a negative attitude toward cigarette smoking. The average score of normative expectations is 68.41 of 100, which indicates that smoking is abnormal subject. The lowest score in life skills is related to adaptive skills with a score of 52.21 out of 100. The score of all life skills is higher than the average. The total score of life skills is 57.3 of 100, which is higher than the average, but has a large gap with ideal status. There was a significant relationship between life skills and smoking status (p = 0.018). Conclusion: Life skills had a significant relationship with smoking status and life skills scores in non-smokers were higher than smokers. Therefore, focusing on life skills training as a tool to prevent the occurrence of high-risk behaviors such as smoking should be emphasized. Based on the findings of this study the age of smoking experience is low, therefore it is necessary to start the preventive program from the elementary school