Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey (SALSUS): smoking report 2018

4 Attitudes to smoking

Whether it’s ‘ok’ to try smoking

45% of 15 year olds thought it was ‘ok’ for someone their age to try smoking a cigarette to see what it’s like. 13 year olds were much less likely to think it was ‘ok’ (19%).

The proportion thinking it is ‘ok’ has risen since 2015 (up from 42% of 15 year olds and 16% of 13 year olds in 2015) after having fallen markedly over time between 2006 and 2015.

In 2018, 15 year old girls were more likely than boys of the same age to think it was ‘ok’ to try smoking (Figure 4.1). 

Figure 4.1: Trends in the proportion of pupils who think it’s ‘ok’ to try smoking, by age and gender (2006-2018)

Q. Do you think it is ‘ok’ for someone your age to do the following? Try smoking a cigarette to see what it’s like.

Base: all pupils (for full base sizes please see Appendix A)

Views on smoking and its effects

Pupils were given a series of statements about smoking and asked the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with each.^[10]

There were very high levels of agreement with statements about the negative health effects of smoking. Non-smokers were somewhat more likely to agree than regular smokers, but the levels of agreement among regular smokers were still high (Figure 4.2 shows the figures for 15 year olds, patterns among 13 year olds were similar).

Pupils were much less likely to agree with positive statements about smoking. There was more of a difference between non-smokers and regular smokers in relation to these statements, with regular smokers being much more likely to agree (Figure 4.3 shows the figures for 15 year olds, patterns among 13 year olds were similar). 

Girls tended to agree more with the negative statements about smoking than boys did.

Figure 4.2: Proportion of 15 year olds who ‘strongly agree’ or ‘tend to agree’ with statements about the negative effects of smoking, by smoking status (2018)

Q. Please read the following statements about smoking and say if you agree or disagree with each one.

Base: 15 year old non-smokers (9,034), 15 year old regular smokers (807)

Figure 4.3: Proportion of 15 year olds who ‘strongly agree’ or ‘tend to agree’ with positive statements about smoking, by smoking status (2018)

Q. Please read the following statements about smoking and say if you agree or disagree with each one.

Base: 15 year old non-smokers (9,034), 15 year old regular smokers (807)