Sparking up — smoking and style in school

Abstract

THE sociological concept of style has been employed to explore the social significance of cigarette smok ing to adolescent school pupils. A qualitative case study in one secondary school was undertaken to explore the phenomenon. Smoking was found to be an important source of self-esteem and fraternity to pupils who saw themselves as being in conflict with the authority of the school. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the relationship between classroom teaching of smoking education programmes and the hidden curriculum of personal relationships.