Abstract

NOVOA-GOMEZ, Mónica María; BARRETO, Idaly  and  MANUEL SILVA, Luis. Cigarette smoking and Cultural Practices in University Contexts. rev.latinoam.psicol. [online]. 2012, vol.44, n.1, pp.97-110. ISSN 0120-0534.

This observational, descriptive, transversal study sought to establish prevalence, frequency, risk factors and university context features in a private University in Bogota, Colombia, all associated to smoking in the University population (n=973) in 2008-2009. Results suggest confirming that experimenting with these substances is related to environmental variables such as availability and ease of Access, besides positive valuing practices towards smoking, exhibited by the participants' reference groups. We noticed that, whilst it is true that smoking may have been learnt before being a part of the University community, the University itself is a social reinforcement context, which encourages the excessive following of behavioural rules. It means that University context promotes social behaviour modes that lie under control of a history of correspondence between rules and natural contingencies in social interaction, as noticed by all groups when they pointed to social factors as the element with the most weight when deciding to smoke.

Keywords : cultural practices; smoking; university context; young people; functional analysis.

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