Influence of environment on the beginnings of smoking among children

This bachelor thesis examines the currect situation concerning the beginnings of smoking among second grade pupils, the social trends and influence of social environment. This thesis also focuses on smoking education and its knowledge among these pupils and it tries to discover whether they know about health risks of smoking. In the theoretical part, I described history of smoking, general information about smoking, and health risks of smoking. In the practical part of this thesis, I chose two hypothesis to be confirmed or disproved. I used questionnaires as a research instrument at selected primary schools in České Budějovice. The first hypothesis says that children whose parents smoke are more likely to start smoking themselves than children from non-smoking families. This hypothesis was confirmed. The second hypothesis says that more than a half of respondents are not fully informed about possible health risks of smoking. This hypothesis was also confirmed. I was surprised by the results of my research. It is alarming how many children have smoking experience or how many of them are even regular smokers these days. In my opinion, lack of education and not enough attention focused on anti-smoking prevention programs only contribute to this trend. Our society should think a lot more about this phenomenon, and we should try harder for our new generations not to take smoking as a part of their daily life