“Social thinking” and cultural images: teenagers’ notions of tobacco use

The health hazards of tobacco use are well-known, and it is considered particularly important to prevent tobacco use among teenagers. New generations of teenagers still start using tobacco. To develop a more profound understanding of tobacco use among teenagers, the purpose of this study is to explore representations of tobacco use, smoking as well as snuffing, at the age when young people often start using tobacco. Focus-group interviews were carried out with 14-15 year olds in two schools in the Stockholm area. The analysis reveals that teenagers are well informed about the health-hazards of tobacco use. At the same time they hold complex and conflicting ideas concerning the relationship between tobacco use, risk, the body and “human nature”. At the most general level of “social thinking” there is a dynamic relation between the three main representations of tobacco use related to: (1) notions of risk, (2) “human nature” and; (3) societyʹs efforts to discipline its citizens, which together can be seen as the social representation of tobacco use. These representations of tobacco use are discussed as related to the teenagers’ identity-work and gender identities.