Well- Being: A Study of Smoker and Non-Smoker Adolescents

Abstract

-Worldwide, tobacco use causes more than 5 million deaths per year, and current trends show that tobacco use will cause more than 8 million deaths annually by 2030 (WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2011).Taking this into consideration an attempt has been made to study the Well-being among Frequent, casual and Non-Smoker Adolescents by comparing them with each other. The purposive sample for this study comprised of 150 Hostellers with equal number of Frequent, Casual and Non-Smokers from Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. The Scale of Well-being comprised of five dimensions viz: Physical, Mental, Social, Emotional and Spiritual developed by Jagsharanbir Singh and Dr. Asha Gupta, (2001) was used to gather information from the participants of this study. For the analysis of the data obtained, t-test was applied. A significant difference was found in Well-being among Frequent, Casual and Non-smokers when compared with each other: Non-smokers were found to show better well-being followed by Casual Smokers and least Well-being was found among frequent Smokers. The insignificant differences were found when Casual Smokers were compared with Non-Smokers on Mental dimension of Well-being and when Frequent Smokers were compared with Casual Smokers on Social dimension of Well-being. The frequency of smoking and its consequences are growing at an increased rate, viz-a-viz which needs to be controlled. Therefore an urgent intervention from the society in general and the Govt. and Non-govt. organizations in particular have to come forward in tackling spreading menace of Smoking among Adolescents.