Teachers’ Perceptions on Smoking at School Environment and Students’ Smoking

This study was carried out to define the smoking behaviour of primary and highschool teachers, and perceptions on smoking at school environment and students’smoking. Data was gathered by using a questionnaire among 255 female and 199 maleteachers teachers (n=454) in 13 primary and 12 high schools (total of 25 schools) inİstanbul. Of all teachers, 41.2% was currently smokers. Smoking rates were similaraccording to sex. By Fagerstrom Dependency Questionnaire, 9.1% of smokers were foundat very high level of nicotine dependency and 38.2% were found at very low level ofnicotine dependency. According to 25.2% of all teachers, and 34.2 of non-smokers,school area should be a fully non-smoking area. Smoking at school was acceptable for therest of the group, with some restrictions. Teachers were asked what they would do if theysee a student smoking. The most frequent answers were referring to school counselingservice (61.6%), telling the harms of smoking (57.6%), and telling that youth and childrenshould not smoke (43.1%). These results showed that many teachers perceive smoking asan acceptable adult behavior. Perceptions of teachers on smoking as well as highpercentage of smoking were found as an important problem.Key words : Cigarette Smoking, School Health