The application of health psychology principles to working within a stop smoking service based in a deprived inner city area

Abstract

A qualitative study was conducted to explore the process of smoking pre-initiation, initiation, maintenance and cessation for 16-17 year old, second generation Somali, Bangladeshi and White British, male and female smokers. The participants were all regular smokers (which was classified as smoking at least one cigarette a week) and were recruited from a deprived inner city borough via opportunistic and snowball sampling. Six focus group interviews were conducted with 5-6 participants in each focus group. The groups were split according to ethnic background and gender and the interviews lasted for approximately an hour. The data was analysed using grounded theory. Three core categories were identified for the different stages of the smoking process; 'construction of smoking fantasy' was representative of the pre-initiation state, 'construction of smoking reality' for the initiation stage and 'negotiating smoking reality' for the maintenance stage. The experience of cessation was encompassed in the maintenance stage. The over-arching core category for all three stages was 'negotiating smoking 'fantasy and reality'. Overall the experience of smoking was similar in many ways between the different groups but there were also distinctions. These distinctions centred around the greater influence of socio-cultural factors, such as religion, on the Somali and Bangladeshi participants and the influence of traditional smoking gender norms on the experience of Somali females and Bangladeshi females. The importance of conducting research with hard-to-reach groups, and the applicability of findings for healthcare services working with the Somali and Bangladeshi population, was discussed.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo