Supporting young people to remain smokefree

If we can support young people to be smokefree, they are likely to remain smokefree for life. This is since very few people take up smoking after they reach their 20s.

Young people are leading the way to a Smokefree Aotearoa with around three-quarters of young people never having had a puff of tobacco – 78.6 percent in 2015 compared to 33 percent in 2000.

There are a combination of factors involved in why young people take up smoking, including:

• Family smoking: A young person is 7 times more likely to start smoking if both parents smoke. If their parents quit, they are also more likely to quit.
• Access to tobacco products: Young people are more likely to take up smoking if they can afford to, and if cigarettes are easy to get.
• Tobacco advertising and promotion: Young people are easily influenced by advertising and seeing celebrities smoking.
• Social groups: Young people who smoke tend to hang out together.  Teenagers are more likely to smoke if their friends smoke.
• Parental rules: Ensuring that no-one smokes inside the home or in the car protects children and young people.  It helps if parents who smoke openly talk about concerns about their own smoking habit.
• Social norms: It’s hard to be smokefree if smoking is common or normal.

Let’s work to change the social acceptance of smoking

Creating smokefree environments

It’s illegal to smoke in or around the grounds of workplaces, hospitals, schools and early childhood centres.

• Find out about Community and Public Health’s work around smokefree public spaces, including the Fresh Air Project.
• Find out about supporting Smokefree at school.

Creating a smokefree culture

Parents and caregivers are powerful role models. Kids copy what they see so supporting parents and caregivers to quit is an important part of developing a smokefree culture.

• Find out about the quit services available to those who smoke.

Make smoking less appealing

Reducing access to and the appeal of cigarettes will lower the chances of a young person starting to smoke. The following are two key effective actions to reduce the appeal of smoking:

• plain packaging ensures that tobacco is not displayed in an attractive way; and
• raising taxes to make tobacco less affordable.

Documents

• Susceptibility to smoking among 14 and 15-year-olds (Health Promotion Agency 2020).
• Youth19 Rangatahi Smart Survey Initial Findings: Substance Use (University of Auckland 2020).
• Youth19 Vaping Fact Sheet (University of Auckland 2020).
• Smoking and vaping behaviours among 14 and 15-year-olds: Results from the 2018 Youth Insights Survey (Health Promotion Agency 2020).

• Substance use behaviour among 14 and 15-year-olds: Results from a nationally representative survey (Health Promotion Agency 2020).
• Problem Substance Use Among New Zealand Secondary Schools Students: Findings from the Youth’12 National Youth Health and Wellbeing Survey (University of Auckland 2014).
• Tobacco Use 2012/13: New Zealand Health Survey (Ministry of Health 2013).
• Young people’s perceived access to tobacco (Health Promotion Agency 2013).
• ASH Year 10 Snapshot Survey (annual).

Downloads

Download or order smokefree resources from the Community Health Information Centre.

• Time to Quit.
• Me Mutu Tātou/ Let’s All Quit.
• A Guide to Making you Home and Car Smokefree.

Links

• Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).
• Health Promotion Agency.
• Don’t Get Sucked In (Asthma and Respiratory Foundation of NZ).
• Smokefree at school.
• World Smokefree Day.