title: Cigarette smoking, friendship factors, and social norm perceptions among central and Eastern European high school students.
abstract: Studies investigating smoking behavior among adolescents living in post-communistic Central-European countries are sparse. This study focused on the relationship between cigarette smoking, certain friendship factors, and social norm perceptions among 1,886 Central-Eastern European adolescents from high schools in Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Romania. Smoking behavior was related to having friends who smoke, ease or difficulty making new friends, time spent with friends after school and during evenings, and estimations of the prevalence of smoking by schoolmates. Because these youth appear to overestimate the prevalence of smoking by schoolmates, the use of a norms-correction strategy may have potential merit in smoking prevention efforts targeting these adolescents. Smoking prevention and reduction are critical issues for Central-Eastern European youth because they appear to smoke cigarettes at a high rate.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Science, Brigham Yong University, Provo, UT 84602, USA. randy_page@byu.edu
authors.forename: Randy M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Page
authors.forename: Ferenc
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ihasz
authors.forename: Jaromir
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Simonek
authors.forename: Renata
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Klarova
authors.forename: Iacob
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hantiu
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D005061:Europe, Eastern / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D012931:Social Environment; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*