Rugkasa, J, Kennedy, O, Barton, M, Abaunza, P, Treacy, M and Stewart-Knox, Barbara J. (2001) Smoking and symbolism: children, communication and cigarettes. HEALTH EDUCATION RESEARCH, 16 (2). pp. 131-142. [Journal article]
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Health promotion, with its concern with empowerment and autonomy, must recognize the agency of its target population. Based on 85 in-depth interviews with 10- to 11-year-old children throughout Northern Ireland, this paper argues that it is necessary to focus on the social relations of children if we are to understand and prevent childhood smoking. Addressing the complex issue of childhood agency, it is argued that regardless of various restrictions to their choices, children can act intentionally in constructing their identities, Instead of viewing the smoking children as communicating with the adult world, we focus on smoking as negotiation of status within the children's culture. Such negotiations utilize symbolism derived from and shared with the 'adult world'. It is important that those analyzing children's lives understand children's ideas and behaviour on their own terms. We must make sure that the very concepts in which the children's experiences are put are appropriate ones. It is suggested that the metaphor 'rite of passage' and terminology such as peer 'pressure' versus adult 'influence', commonly used to analyse the children's smoking behaviour, may actually conceal important aspects of childhood agency.
|Item Type:||Journal article|
|Faculties and Schools:||Faculty of Life and Health Sciences|
Faculty of Computing & Engineering > School of Computing and Information Engineering
Faculty of Life and Health Sciences > School of Biomedical Sciences
|Research Institutes and Groups:||Biomedical Sciences Research Institute|
Biomedical Sciences Research Institute > Northern Ireland Centre for Food and Health (NICHE)
|Deposited By:||Dr Barbara Stewart-Knox|
|Deposited On:||10 Feb 2010 15:03|
|Last Modified:||30 Aug 2010 16:50|
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