For the purposes of the investigation, the teen population was defined as persons between 12 and 19 years of age. Four focus groups were conducted with male and female teen smokers, using recruits from the survey sample with additional random screening in the Greater Vancouver area. Alternate tobacco usage is low among teens and tends to be limited to occasional experimentation. While the overall prevalence of smoking among teens is in line with smoking prevalence in the province at large, there are some substantial differences within teenage demographic subgroups. While smoking prevalence has tended to drop off during adulthood, the high prevalence among older teenage subgroups suggests that a substantial part of the population goes through a few years of sustained exposure to tobacco smoke, both from primary smoking and from secondary exposure to smoking among the peer group.
Smoking is much more common among teens living in less advantaged circumstances.
This group tends to look at smoking as another lifestyle choice. While they show some awareness of the hazards of smoking, their combination of fatalism and sensation seeking makes health consequences a more remote consideration at this stage of their life. The onset of smoking among teens is typically around age 13. The first experience usually takes place with a friend or among a group, reflecting a process involving both peer pressure and curiosity. Teens downplay the importance of peer pressure and imitation of adults, older teens or media characters and personalities, but their discussion of their initiation into the smoking subculture highlights the centrality of adult role models and the desire for status and approval in their peer groups.