Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Symposium Date
Spring 4-24-2013
Abstract
The purpose of this project was to assess first semester freshman college students’ opinions about smoking, secondhand smoke exposure, and smoking behaviors on a smoke-free campus. This research used an online cross-sectional survey. For two years, surveys were emailed via Zoomerang to all first semester freshmen students at Valparaiso University. Survey questions contained 60 forced-choice or open-ended options. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. A total of 630 students responded. Subjects were primarily female (58.4%) and Caucasian (84.9%). Twenty-five percent of the respondents reported being exposed to secondhand smoke in their environments. Twenty-nine percent were unaware that the campus is a smoke-free environment, 79% have seen smoking on campus, and 25% believed the smoke-free policy is not enforced. Seventy-seven percent of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the campus should be a smoke-free environment. Thirty-four percent of respondents admitted to smoking at some point in their lifetime. Fourteen percent (n=91) indicated that they had smoked during the previous 30 days, with only 28% of these identifying themselves as “current” smokers. The majority of the respondents supported a smoke-free environment and believed the current campus policy is enforced. Data from this study will add to the growing body of evidence about college students’ smoking behaviors.
Recommended Citation
Matejczyk, Nathan; Tu, Nina; De Young, Michelle; and Arena, Nicole, "Opinions about Smoking, Secondhand Smoke Exposure, and Smoking Behaviors of Freshmen College Students" (2013). Symposium on Undergraduate Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE). 263.
https://scholar.valpo.edu/cus/263
Biographical Information about Author(s)
Full text link is to abstract only.