Background
: Current research indicates that smoking among young adults tends to persist into later life. Furthermore, numerous studies have proven the harmful effects of female smoking on their offspring. These trends have produced a wide variety of(social, medical and economic) problems. This study is aimed at obtaining basic information to help prevent potential smokers from trying their first cigarette as well as to instruct to stop smoking. This study involves the following:1) investigating general factors affecting the smoking status of college students in addition to the deterents to smoking b) seeking to understand the familial influence on smoking status c) researching how smokers, exsmokers and nonsmokers perceive their familial influence on their smoking status.

Methods : In June 1998, a self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 800 students of two junior colleges by random sampling in Po'hang. 720 were returned and 642 displayed adequate responses. The questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS and EXCEL software.

Results : Among the total of 642 subjects studied, 220 were males(34.3%) and 422 females(65.7%). Of the male subjects 149(67%) were smokers, 64(21%) were ex-smokers and 25(11.3%) were non-smokers. Of the female subjects 22(5.2%) were smokers, 399(92.9%) were ex-smokers and 11(2.6%) were non-smokers. The number of cigarettes smoked per day was as follows:79 subjects(46.2%) smoked 10-20 cigarettes, 55(33.2%) smoked less than 10 and 37(21.6%) smoked more than a pack of cigarette. When considering the related factors which affect student smoking, it is evident that there is a growing tendency toward smoking among male students when they have close friends who are smokers and who consume alcohol on a weekly basis. About the motives of smoking, there was a significant difference between the following two cases. Those(36.2%) who successfully quit smoking had started to smoke through solicitation by friends, but only 2.7% were successful if they had started to smoke to relieve stress. When it comes to the influence of familial factors on successful versus unsuccessful attempts to quit smoking, the status of family smokers, whether or not smokers made their habit obvious to family members an whether or not the family allowed smoking did not have any noticeable statistical difference between continuation of smoking and smoking cessation. However there was an obvious difference among ex-smokers, non-smokers and smokers when they responded as to whether or not their family had an effect on smoking status and smoking cessation: ex-smokers(38.4%), non-smokers(30.6%) and smokers(17.0%).

Conclusion : In the light of the related factors attributed to the continuation of smoking in this study, it was revealed that there was a higher possibility of current smoking when the subjects were a male and have close friends who smoked and had a higher of average alcohol consumption. This study also indicated that the continued smoking rate was higher among individuals who started smoking because of stress than those who began smoking as a result of peer pressure. There was no significant relationship between smoking status and familial influence on smoking cessation between smokers an ex-smokers, but ex-smokers and non-smokers had more awarness of familial influence than smokers.