title: Smoking decisions from a teen perspective: a narrative study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore the transitional phase between experimental and regular smoking from the perspective of teens.
  
  
  METHODS
  Narrative analysis of semistructured, individual interviews.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The need to belong and immediate social gain are major themes influencing teen smoking decisions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings have significance for public health workers planning and implementing tobacco-use prevention programs aimed at teens whose smoking behaviors are not yet determined by nicotine addiction. How such programs have been traditionally framed and the ways in which peer influence and risk behaviors have been addressed may be largely irrelevant to the rationale of the adolescents themselves.
authors.affiliation: British Columbia Cancer Agency, Centre for the Southern Interior, Kelowna, BC, Canada. lbaillie@bccancer.bc.ca
authors.forename: Lynne
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Baillie
authors.forename: Chris Y
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Lovato
authors.forename: Joy L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Cecilia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kalaw
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D019365:Metaphor; D008960:Models, Psychological; D033262:Narration; D010379:Peer Group; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012907:Smoking / Q000523:psychology*; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D012925:Social Conformity