Top 10 reasons why youth start smoking

Smoking, the most prevalent form of tobacco use, has become one of the major health concerns in youth. More than 15% of youth, with an equal number of males and females, are regular smokers. More and more school students are getting into the habit of smoking, with many admitting to have taken their first puff before the age of fifteen.

Reasons
Here are the top reasons, not in any particular order, why youth get into the habit of smoking.

• Movies and media: Looking at actors smoking on-screen a motivation to take the first puff, to try and imitate their screen idols.
• Friends: Friends who are smokers being a motivation, with a pressure to belong and be accepted as major reason to start smoking.
• Tobacco use in family: Exposure to smoking by a family member from a young age a big causal factor.
• Availability of money at disposal: Pocket money at disposal with no one to account for as to where the money goes.
• Easy availability of cigarettes: Most shops sell cigarettes to minors, making it easily available almost anywhere.
• Curiosity: Curiosity is at its peak in youth, making them want to try new things.
• Frequency of exposure to smoking: Greater the frequency of exposure of an individual to smoking, greater are the chances that he/she will become a smoker.
• Stress: Starting work at a young age and inability ot handle work stress, or family disputes and tensions, drives them to smoking.
• Misconceptions about ill-effects: the false belief that smoking for a few years and then quitting will not have any ill-effects on health.
• Ethnicity: Ethnic backgrounds along with the associated cultures also play a part.

These are some of the major contributing factors to youth taking up smoking, although there may be other factors cntributing as well. Usually, its a combination of two or more of the above mentioned factors that lead youth to smoke their first cigarette, and eventually getting addicted.