Young people – old problems

Young people – old problems

Исследовательский  проект

Автор Мартыненко Маргарита, ученица 9-го класса

Рецензент Санкина Евгения Владимировна, учитель иностранных языков

Content

Preface                                                                             3-5

The Analyze of  the Experience of Some Countries

 in Fight against Smoking                                               6-9

The Attitude of the Teachers and

 the Parents to Smoking                                                 10-11

The type of the Teenagers’ Attitude to smoking           12-15

Conclusion                                                                     16-17

Appendix                                                                       18-

Preface

It is said that the most beautiful period in our life is when we are teenagers. It’s true. I think that teenage years are the most wonderful years in our life. At this age we start a new adult life. We get more and more freedom. We can go to parties, discos, cafes, etc. We can have a lot of fun with our friends. At this age we start dating. It’s really cool.

Being a teenager is exiting. But I think it’s not easy, as it seems at first.  Teenagers are said to have no problems, as they do not have to work, take care of their families or have any responsibilities. But this is not true; they have many problems in fact. Nowadays we have a lot of things to worry about. Problems at school and problems with parents can result in violence, teen pregnancy, drinking alcohol or just smoking.

The world is becoming a very scary place. More and more teens are turning to drugs and alcohol. Young people are under pressure of their mates who say it’s just fun to smoke and drink beer. Adults who choose unhealthy lifestyle influence them. Some kids associate drinking alcohol and smoking with adulthood. Many of them associate smoking with having a great party and real fun.

I think smoking is the biggest and the most difficult problem. It is one of the worst and widespread habits among young people. But they don’t think smoking is deviation. Besides the public moral in our country is tolerant towards smoking. My opinion is based on the reports that I have read in some books and newspapers and on the results of the survey carried out in our school.

Smoking is one of the most common addictions that for years has been socially acceptable. There are passive smokers, who are even in a worse situation. The smoke from other people’s cigarettes influences their health more negatively than that of active smokers. But some young people think they look more nature when holding a cigarette.

There is a lot of work ahead of us. This matter won’t wait. All people should understand that “the smoker is a man who has some defects in culture and behavior as doctor R.G.Oganov said ().

The destructive power of smoking makes us find answers to such questions as:

Why do young people begin to smoke?

How can we help them?

Is the fight against smoking at school effective?

The aim of our project is the research of the conditions for the effective fight against smoking at school.

 To achieve this aim we have solved such tasks as:

1) to analyze the smoking problem and the experience of some           countries in fight against smoking;

to analyze the attitude of the students, teachers and parents to the problem of smoking;

to find out the reasons of smoking among teens;

to turn out the factors that influence on the spreading of smoking among young people;

to learn how much information about the dangers  of regular smoking do our teenagers have.

   The subject of our research is young people.

   The object of the research is smoking.

   The methods of the research are:

the analyze of the literary works;

the interview, the discussion and the questionnaires;

the survey of public opinion;

the observation;

the mathematical information processing and computing.

In our work we proceeded from the supposition that the fight against smoking at school will be successful, if the conditions for the prevention of smoking will be found.

The practical value of the work is that we tried to find and determine the conditions for the effective fight against smoking at school. The results of our research can be used by the teachers and the active members of youth organizations.

We have been worked since November, 2006 till April, 2007.

The Analyze of the Experience of Some Countries in Fight against Smoking

We have analyzed the smoking problem and the experience of some countries in fight against smoking.

It is interesting to know that in Japan all workers who gave up smoking are paid out the considerable money rewards. And some employers don’t take the smokers on their business ().

In Italy, for example, the smokers are not demonstrated on TV. In some big firms the young engineers and managers are not promoted. Sometimes they are got the sack if they can’t give up smoking. ()

It’s an interesting subculture called “Straight edge”. “Straight edge” teenagers are a growing group of young people who are unhappy with the society in which they are growing up. They don’t want to follow the usual routes of teenage rebellion. Instead they have chosen a clean, healthy approach to life to better themselves and the world in which they live. Originally being a “straight edge” meant that you didn’t drink, smoke or take drugs.

In California, the battle against smoking has grown so hot, that many smokers are giving up smoking or taking their habit into hiding. Dozens of anti-smoking laws have been passed in the last two or three years. But it’s not just the laws that make life difficult for smokers .It’s the negative attitude to smokers. Small children tug at their mothers’ hands and point when they see a cigarette in someone’s mouth. Smokers complain of feeling like outcasts and sometimes even outlaws. They risk breaking a law or at least attracting a hostile stare every time they pull out a pack of cigarettes. ()

Today there are several self-help groups like “Alcoholics Anonymous”, “Smokers Anonymous” for people with all kinds of different problems in the USA. The most teenagers in the USA don’t smoke. The smoking cases are decreasing. A lot of smokers admit that smoking is life-threatening.

But as for Russia the situation is growing worth and worth. In March, 2006, in Moscow the press conference was held. The topic of the Conference was “The smoking in teenage years is the task of our authorities, our society and business”. I was shocked reading this information. “Russia is one of the most smoking countries all over the world. We use 300 milliard cigarettes a year. According to the information of the World Organization of Healthcare there are 33% of Russian teenagers who smoke”. ()

         At the same time it has done a little to restrict smoking and improve the situation with our health. Russia didn’t join the Convention on the fight against smoking. All countries that joined the Convention must take some measures against smoking, such as the rise in taxes on tobacco; the tighten control over the production, the advertising and the sale of cigarettes; the warning about the damaging effect of smoking on our health written in big letters on the packs of cigarettes and other.

But we haven’t some strict measures in fight against smoking in Russia. 2002 a law about the restricting smoking in Russia was come into force. According to this law teenagers are forbidden to buy cigarettes. () But in our town kids can buy cigarettes easily.

It’ interesting to know that 80% of teenagers say that if they couldn’t buy the cigarettes they‘ll give up smoking. That’s why it’s very important to observe the law.

In spite of the facts that it is forbidden with the law to sell cigarettes one by one, the shop assistants do it. I can’t understand what is going on. It’s forbidden to smoke in all public areas. But if you will go to the disco in our House of Culture you’ll see that the most teenagers smoke there. The teachers give us some information about the danger of smoking, but the smoking cases are increasing at schools.

It seems to me that anyone can smoke anywhere he wants in our country without any limits. And nobody finds the problem serious and important to solve.

It’s awful to learn that according to a report, “every day about 11.000 people on our planet die from smoking”. () I’m so horrified by what I have read about the effects of smoking. Some diseases aggravated by smoking include emphysema, bronchitis, heart and blood vessel problems and lung cancer.

As it turned out, nowadays the most girls begin to smoke at the age of 13-14, boys – at the age of 10-11. It’s awful. You can see the spreading of smoking among teenagers. () At the age of 13 there are only 1.5 % of smoking girls and by the 11th form the number of smoking girls grows into 20 times.

As far as our school is concerned the problem of smoking is very important, too. According to the survey carried out in my class the most girls and boys who smoke (there are 50% of girls and 64% of boys) know that smoking is one of the bad habits, which causes a lot of health problems. But they don’t think it is danger for their own health.

Besides most parents do not pay attention to what their children do. They know that their children smoke and don’t forbid them to smoke. That’s why the solution of this problem even in our school is very difficult. On the one hand our schoolchildren say that nobody had ever warned them of the danger of regular smoking. On the other hand some adults are quite indifferent to this problem.

The attitudes to smoking have changed in our country over the past few years. In the past, most people tried to hide an addiction. But today many famous people like our popular singer as Layma Vaykule, have talked openly about their addictions. She admitted that she has been smoking for several years. Her view is that if she wants to, then she can – it’s her life, she is free to decide and nobody can forbid to do what she wants. Our society is tolerant towards smokers today.

And we decide to know the attitude of our teachers and parents to smoking.

The Attitude of the Teachers and the Parents to Smoking

To find out the attitude of the teachers and the parents to smoking we have suggested them a questionnaire (). Thirty teachers of our school took part in this survey.

It makes me happy that only one teacher of our school smokes. 30 percent of our teachers’ families haven’t the smokers at all. But there are 35.7 percent of the smoking husbands and 25 percent of the smoking children in their families. There is a daughter among them.

It’s awful to know that 26.7 percent of our teachers are indifferent to this problem, though the majority of them (73.3 percent) disapprove of this addiction.

Our teachers suppose the main reasons for smoking among teenagers are the influence of their friends (30 percent), the fashion (30 percent) and the wish to look grown-up.

But 13.8 percent of the teachers have written “I don’t know” answering the question “What makes our teenagers begin to smoke?” What does it mean? Are they really indifferent to us and our problems? And we must have the feeling that somebody cares for us.

Dependence on mates is the main trait of character of a smoker as our teachers think. 11 percent of the respondents don’t know the symptom of a teenager who smokes. I can’t believe.

The teachers say that to prevent smoking at school it’s necessary to convince the boys and the girls of healthy lifestyle, to organize free time at school, to cooperate with the parents, to change children’s life, to forbid to smoke in all public areas sell cigarettes to teenagers (but we have a law that forbids all these things), to take money from the parents if their children will smoke. But they only talk with their students. What’s the matter? The teachers’ conversations haven’t positive results.

The parents are indifferent to smoking too, as our questionnaire show. There are 44.4 percent of parents who say “It’s all the same to me”. Some parents don’t know if their children smoke (27.8 percent). The unpleasant smell and the “smoking cough” are the signs of their smoking children.

There are only 11 percent of non-smoking families among our respondents. And there are 22 percent of smoking women in these families.

The parents’ view is that the friends, the wish to look grown-up and the protest against the parents are the main reasons for smoking. 27.7 percent of the parents don’t know how to protect their children from smoking. They say “There is nothing to be done!” our parents think the government and the school must be responsible for the solution of this problem. Do the teenagers stop smoking if their parents think so? I don’t know.

The type of the Teenagers’ Attitude to smoking

The results of the survey “My letter to the smoking mate” carried out in my class let us asses my classmates’ conceptions about the effect of smoking. There were 27 students who took part in the survey. Among them were 10 smoking boys, 7 non-smoking boys, 5 smoking girls, 5 non-smoking girls.

The damaging effects of smoking on the teens’ organism ()

First we should study how much information about the dangers of regular smoking do our teenagers have. There were 5 versions of answers:

“I don’t know”

“My parents will know”

“The habit’s appearance”

“The dependence on smoking”

“The fatal diseases”

The results show that the majority of the students (     to     percent) think the most important effect is the dependence on smoking. It’s interesting to note that they don’t know what effect is it: psychological or physical. Therefore, they don’t understand they will be dependent on smoking as psychological as physical.

The next main thing is the fatal diseases (   to   percent). It’s important that the considerable part of the respondent (   to    percent) couldn’t tell about the damaging effect of smoking on the people.

On the whole we can say that the most students know about the harmful effect of smoking (the habit, the dependence, the fatal disease), but they have superficial knowledge about it. Our young people don’t have enough information about the danger of regular smoking.

The information about the facts that prevent teenagers from giving up smoking is very interesting. The most powerful thing is the pressure of their mates as the teens say. And the views of adults are the same. The second important thing is the dependence on smoking. Though the most adults think (as the survey show) teenagers haven’t such dependence and they could give up smoking easily if they want.

The most teens don’t associate the reasons that prevent them from giving up smoking with special features such as the weak will, the inability to solve their problems. They think there are only psychological reasons for that. But it isn’t true. We have our own opinion about this. Our research shows that adults should pay more attention to formation such traits of teens’ character as self-confidence and the ability to make decisions that will influence their future life.

To give up a deep meaning to this problem we should know what causes our teenagers to smoke? Smoking is very popular with the teens. The popularity of smoking among teenagers becomes clear their parents’ spreading of smoking and the attitude to smoking although their parents don’t think so.

According to our survey () there are three types of attitudes to smoking: neutral (it’s all the same to me), condemning (it worries me) and emotionally condemning (it gives me a shock). The results show that the teenagers from the smoking families (   percent) are more indifferent to smoking whatever their sex, whatever the thing do they smoke or not than the teens from the non-smoking families.

Smoking children are more indifferent to the problem, too. If we compare the boys and the girls we can say the boys are more indifferent to smoking than the girls.

So, one of the preconditions of the beginning smoking is the parents’ factor of smoking. Non-smoking parents and non-smoking teachers can play an important role in the preventive measures at school.

The comparison of the high school’s surveys show that the high students are more indifferent to smoking. It makes the preventive measures at high school more difficult. This fact let us suppose the preventive measures at school are more effective.

The next step in our survey was the study of the motives for beginning smoking ().the main motive is the wish to have friends and to show off (   percent). The next motive is the imitation (   percent), than the curiosity (   percent) and the wish to show the independence (   percent). To compare these results with the results of the questionnaires of adults we can say that adults don’t know their children and may be that’s why they can’t help them.

The main problem of all times and ages is the problem “nobody understands me, or doesn’t want to understand me”.

Discussing the problem with my classmates it turned out some interesting facts. There are children who have ever tried to smoke but they don’t smoke now. Those children who are in the company of the smokers (family, friends), who like to have an opportunity to buy cigarettes, who think smoking helps them to become slimmer, to free themselves of stress become the smokers more often.

Answering the question “What can we do instead of smoking?” my classmates suggest to go in for sport (33 percent) or to do some interesting and useful things (25 percent). 17.5 percent of them think we can replace smoking with healthy lifestyle that is more interesting and better.

Conclusion

In conclusion we can say that it’s a pity, but the recent surveys really show that smoking cases in our country are increasing. Smoking is the biggest problem that concern young people.

Studying some different sources of information, taking discussions, carrying out the sociological surveys and questionnaires we come to conclusion that it is necessary to place some bans on smoking. But it is the problem that our government must solve.

And we can do something at school to solve it.

First, we should unite the school with the parents.

Secondly, the adults should carry out the survey of the teens’ attitude to smoking to take the preventive measures at school correctly

Thirdly, there should be much more information about the damaging effects of smoking at school.

And the most important thing is that the young people must have a feeling that somebody cares for them.

So, we were right supposing that the fight against smoking at school will be successful, if the conditions for the prevention of smoking will be found.

The next survey of this problem is that we should make a programme to prevent smoking at school for children’s organization and to realize this programme.

I’d like to tell that we have done something in this direction. I’ve discussed the results of our survey with my classmates and we’ve decide the following:

I’ve written some texts for our radio programmes about the damaging effects of smoking ().

On our own initiative there was held the drawing competition “No smoking!”

We have found the information for the “speaking walls”.

We have written the advices for those who want to give up smoking.

We have found some materials for our English lessons.