Following the implementation of the smokefree law in 2006, which formed part of
the Smoking, Health and Social Care (Scotland) Act 2005, smoking in enclosed
public spaces has been prohibited in Scotland. The law has led to a number of
improvements in public health but does not cover homes and cars where children are
primarily exposed. Secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure is associated with
particularly significant risks to child health, yet few studies have explored children’s
perspectives on SHS and smoking in the home and car. Comprising a qualitative
exploration of the views and experiences of 38, 10- to 15-year-olds of SHS in the
home and car, this thesis begins to address this gap. It addresses the nature and extent
of children’s involvement in negotiating smoking restrictions, compares the
understandings, experiences and involvement among participants living in
communities of contrasting socioeconomic profiles and considers the implications
for health promotion interventions aimed at reducing children’s exposure to SHS in
the home and car.
Informed by a Childhood Studies perspective, the study focuses, both in methods and
content, on the voices and agency of the participants. Recruited from two Edinburgh
communities with contrasting socioeconomic profiles, the participants were
interviewed either individually, in pairs or in small focus groups about their
understandings of SHS, smoking restrictions in their homes and cars and their role in
negotiating them. Home floor plans constructed by the participants were used to
prompt discussion and also served to identify spatial and temporal home smoking
restrictions. Both discursive and thematic techniques were used in analysis.
The thesis details the participants’ overt and covert strategies to resist family
members’ smoking, demonstrating the active roles that participants describe in their
accounts. While acknowledging SHS as a health risk and using an embodied
language of disgust to describe it, the participants’ main concern was for their
smoking family members’ health, rather than their own. Many participants also
challenged the stigma surrounding smoking parents by detailing the ways in which
their parents restricted where, how much and with whom they smoked. Parents were
described as especially careful in protecting small children from SHS. While most
participants described such protective practices, those from the disadvantaged area
reported less stringent smoking restrictions that were more challenging to negotiate.
Participants’ resistant (to smoking) and defensive (of parents who smoke) accounts
may stem from the growing stigma associated with smoking, particularly smoking in
the presence of children. Such findings highlight the importance of a sensitive and
asset based public health response that acknowledges parents’ attempts to protect
their children from SHS and recognises the potential of the active role of children in
family negotiations around smoking in the home and car
