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Psychological Symptoms and Smoking Among Turkish University Students
JOURNAL OF YOUTH RESEARCHES
Data Analysis
The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS. 15.0) program was used for sta-
tistical analysis. Student’s t and Chi-Square tests was used in calculating differences
between groups, and logistic regression was used to model the association between
gender, parental smoking status, SES, anxiety, depression, self-negativity, somatization,
and hostility with smoking status (smokers and non-smokers). Prediction models were
developed and tested using the formal model-building step outlined by Hosmer and Le-
meshow (2000).
Results
Sample Characteristics
The statistical analysis demonstrated that 28 % of the total number of participants (44%
males; 13% females) smoked one or more cigarettes per day. Among current smokers,
the mean age of initiation was 16.53 (SD=2.69). Gender was correlated with smoking
(c
2
=96.88, df=1, p<.001). There were no significant differences in SES variable between
smokers and non-smokers. Current smokers demonstrated significantly higher levels of
depressive symptoms (t=-3.16, p<.01), anxiety (t=-3.58, p<.001), self-negativity (t=-3.08,
p<.001), somatization (t=-3.29, p<.01) and hostility (t=-6.27, p<.001) than non-smokers
(Table 1)
Table 1 Characteristic of Sample of Youth Who Current Smokers and Nonsmokers.
Current smokers
Non-smokers
Characteristic M SD n
% M SD n
%
Gender
Male
148 44.4
185 55.6
Female
58 13.0
388 87.0
SES
Low
7
3.4
19
3.3
Medium
185 89.8
523 91.3
High
14
6.8
31
5.4
Age
21.04 1.69
20.89 1.74
Depression
17.02 9.95
14.61 9.19
Anxiety
13.53 8.97
11.16 7.87
Self-negativity
12.87 8.77
10.83 7.90
Somatization
8.91 6.68
7.32 5.69
Hostility
10.83 5.81
8.14 5.08
