HEALTH EDUCATION RESEARCH Theory & Practice Vol.11 no.2 1996 Pages 215-230 Exploring young people's perceptions of smoking images in youth magazines David Gray, Amanda Amos and Candace Currie 1 Abstract Although research has shown that cigarette advertising can influence smoking among young people, no studies have looked at young people's perceptions of other media images of smoking. This paper describes how focus groups were used to explore the way young people in two age groups (12-13 and 15-16 years) interpreted fashion photographs from youth magazines which contained smoking images, their percep- tions of smoking and non-smoking imagery, and their views on smoking. It appears that the Interpretative process consisted of relating a representation of the image to the content of the photo and comparing the congruence of this representation with the participant's model of reality. Most references to the presence of a cigarette were negative or neutral, with the perceived congruence of the cigarette within the portrayed image varying between photographs. Differences were detected between the age groups in the way they interpreted the pictures and in their perceptions of smoking. The 12- 13 year olds were characterized by concrete thought and interpretation which produced very anti-smoking accounts, painting a picture of a cultural role for smoking in their lives which they found intimidating. The older teenagers employed a more abstract interpretative process Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9AG and 'Research Unit in Health and Behavioural Change, Medical School, Edinburgh EH8 9AG, UK which reflected smoking in a more ambivalent light. The possible effect of these media images on young people's smoking behaviour is dis- cussed. Introduction The last 20 years years has seen a major decline in adult cigarette smoking in the UK. However, this decline appears to have been due more to adults quitting than reductions in the rate of young people starting smoking (Amos etal, 1992). Indeed between 1986 and 1992 there was no change in the prevalence of regular smokers among 11-15 year olds in England which remained at 10%, while the prevalence of occasional smokers varied from 5 to 7% (Thomas et al, 1993). Similarly in Scotland over this period, the prevalence of regular and occasional smokers among 12-13 year olds increased from 17 to 18%. More recent data, from the WHO Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Survey in Scotland shows an increase in weekly smoking among 13 and 15 year olds between 1990 and 1994 (Currie and Todd, 1991; Currie et al, in preparation). A wide range of factors, from personal and individual to social and environmental, have been identified as predictors of smoking uptake and maintenance among young people (Bellew and Wayne, 1991; Amos et al, 1992; Currie et al, 1993). It is known that attitudes and beliefs about smoking are important, and are influenced by social factors such as the attitudes of families, teachers and friends, education about smoking, and the media (Goddard, 1990, UICC, 1990). Research on the media's role in shaping young people's social © Oxford University Press 215 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/her/article/11/2/215/628480 by guest on 12 September 2023