In 2010, around four in 10 (42%) young people thought it would definitely be difficult to quit smoking once someone has started, and around four in 10 (43%) thought it probably be difficult.
Methodology
Respondents were asked once someone has started smoking, do you think it would be difficult to quit? Response options were ‘definitely not’, ‘probably not’, ‘probably yes’, and ‘definitely yes’. Overall responses are presented. Statistically significant differences (p<.05) in ‘definitely yes’ responses are then reported by:
• Smoking status (current smokers: those who smoked at least monthly, compared with those who had never tried smoking).
• Smoking susceptibility (non-susceptible never smokers, compared with susceptible never smokers, as defined by answers to a validated measure of susceptibility to smoking uptake. The base was those who had never tried smoking).
• Quit smoking status (those who had tried to stop smoking in the past year, compared with those who had not. The base was those who gave either of those response options to the question about whether they had tried to quit). • Parent/caregiver smoking status (those who had indicated that one of their parents smoked and both of their parents smoked, compared with those who had indicated that neither parent smoked).
• Ethnicity (Māori, compared with non-Māori).
• Gender
Key Results
• Around four in 10 young people thought quitting would definitely be difficult, and around four in 10 thought it would probably be difficult. Around one in 10 thought it would probably not be difficult, and around one in 10 thought it would definitely not be difficult.
• Young people who had never tried smoking, particularly those defined as not susceptible to start smoking in the future, were more likely to think that quitting would be difficult. This suggests that understanding the difficulty of quitting may be a protective factor against smoking uptake.
• Young people who had tried to quit or had quit smoking, and those who had parents who smoked, were also more likely to think that quitting would be difficult. This suggests that personal experience of quitting leads to a better understanding of the difficulty of quitting.
• Females were also more likely to think that quitting would be difficult.