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A survey carried out on behalf of the NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre by the National Centre for Social Research and the National Foundation for Educational Research was to continue to monitor smoking, drinking and drug use among secondary school children aged 11-15. Information was obtained from 9,715 pupils in 313 schools throughout England during the autumn term of 2004. One of the aims of this survey is to measure progress towards the government’s target to reduce the number of children aged 11-15 who smoke regularly (defined as usually smoking at least one cigarette a week) from a baseline of 13% in 1996 to 11% by 2005 and 9% by 2010. In 2004 9% of pupils aged 11-15 were regular smokers. The proportion of regular smokers has fluctuated since 1982, but has remained stable since 1999 at between 9% and10%.Prevalence of smoking was strongly related to age. Only 1% of 11 year olds were regular smokers compared with 21% of 15 year olds. In the early 1980s, boys and girls were equally likely to smoke. Since then, girls have been consistently more likely to smoke than boys. In 2004, 10% of girls were regular smokers, compared with 7% of boys. This gender difference was not present among younger pupils but became apparent among 14 year olds and 15 year olds. Eleven per cent of pupils had smoked in the last seven days, 8% of boys and 14% of girls. The method of recording smoking in the last seven days changed in 2003, and so it is not possible to compare the number of cigarettes smoked in 2004 with previous years. Although girls were more likely to smoke than boys, boys and girls smoked similar numbers of cigarettes. Regular smokers of both sexes had smoked an average of 42 cigarettes in the last seven days. Both regular and occasional smokers smoked the greatest number of cigarettes on Fridays and Saturdays. Regular smokers had consumed an average of 7.9 cigarettes on Fridays and 8.4 cigarettes on Saturdays, compared with between 5.5 and 6.2 on other days. Pupils who smoked regularly were equally likely to have done so on any day of the week except Sundays, when slightly fewer smoked. Occasional smokers (those who smoked less than one cigarette a week) were more likely to have smoked on Friday or Saturday than on any other day. Pupils who smoked regularly were more likely to consider themselves dependent on smoking if they had been smoking for over a year. Among these smokers, 76% felt it would be difficult not to smoke for a week, and 88% thought that it would be difficult to give up altogether. In comparison, 50% of those who had smoked regularly for a year or less thought it would be difficult to stop for a week, and 65% thought it would be difficult to give up altogether.
Pupils who had smoked regularly for more than a year were more likely to have tried and failed to give up than had those who had smoked for less time (74% compared with 58%), and they were also more likely to want to give up altogether (43% and 35% respectively). Pupils who had tried to give up or who had successfully given up smoking were most likely
to have asked family and friends for help and advice (25% had done so) or to have tried nicotine products (9%).
Family attitudes towards smoking
Most pupils felt that their families would take a negative attitude to their smoking. Overall, 89% felt this, divided between 67% of pupils who felt that their families would try to stop them smoking and 22% who thought their families would try to persuade them to stop. Whether pupils felt their families would be confrontational (would try to stop them) or persuasive (would try to persuade them to stop) was related to age, although the majority of pupils of all ages thought their parents would take a confrontational approach. The proportion of pupils who believed this fell with in line with pupils’ age and, conversely, older pupils were more likely than younger ones to feel that their parents would try persuasion.
Pupils who lived in households where someone else smoked were more likely to smoke themselves than pupils who lived in non-smoking households, and the prevalence of smoking also increased with the number of other smokers in the household. Eight per cent of pupils who lived in otherwise non-smoking households smoked themselves, but this
proportion rose to 35% of pupils who lived with three or more other smokers.
Where children get cigarettes
Pupils who smoked regularly obtained cigarettes from a wide range of sources, most commonly shops (77%), particularly newsagents or tobacconists (69%). Occasional smokers were most likely get cigarettes by being given them by friends (73%). Between 1982 and 1996, the proportion of regular smokers who bought cigarettes from shops varied between 86% and 89%. After 1998, this declined, and in 2002 reached the current level of 77% of regular smokers buying cigarettes in shops. In 2004, 17% of pupils had tried to buy cigarettes from a shop in the last year. This proportion has fallen steadily since the mid 1990s. The proportion of pupils who had been refused cigarettes in a shop has increased in the same period. In 2004, 52% of pupils who had tried to buy cigarettes in a shop had been refused at least once in the last year, and 19% had been refused on the most recent occasion. Among current smokers, 24% felt that it was difficult to buy cigarettes in shops.
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