1%) characterized a social smoker as having smoked for a few months or for about a year. No differences in smoking experience or gender were found. Qualitative Interviews When asked to define a smoker during the interviews, adolescents tended to characterize the term ��smoker�� using frequency of smoking. The majority selleck bio (n = 26) of adolescents included regularity and consistency in their response to the questions: For example, a female never-smoker defined a smoker as, ��Someone who has cigarettes and smokes. Probably someone that does it regularly like a regular routine.�� Other notable quotes included the following: ��I think someone who smokes like regularly, like not like just tries it but like continuously�� (female and never-smoker) and ��someone who smokes tobacco or anything.

Constantly like every day or every other day . . . if you do it consistently like day after day�� (male and ever-smoker). In addition, adolescents made a distinction between experimentation versus regular or habitual use: ��I don��t consider someone a smoker if they try it like once or twice, but if they do it consistently I��d say �� well, yeah, if they smoke like a few a day then yeah, I��d consider them a smoker, of course, because it��s not just a one time thing, doing it like consistently�� (male and ever-smoker), and ��I guess someone who continually smokes, has the habit of it. I don��t think somebody who does it one time would be considered a smoker. It has to be a habit, I guess�� (male and ever-smoker). In terms of the amount of cigarette smoking required to be considered a smoker, we found less agreement among the adolescents.

This qualitative finding supported the quantitative findings that indicated a wide range: ��I would say maybe if the person did it like maybe 5 times a day or something like that but obviously once you get into like how many packs a day or whatever, that��s definitely a smoker so �� .�� (female and never-smoker); ��I feel people that smoke at least one cigarette a day, they��re smokers�� (female and ever-smoker); ��to me, if they smoke once, they��re a smoker��it doesn��t matter�� (male and never-smoker); and ��once a week would probably be a smoker. If you smoke, you smoke�� (male and ever-smoker).

Some adolescents also framed their definition of a smoker in terms of addiction, but a lack of agreement in terms of what amount was required to be considered addicted was observed: ��Like a person that is like addicted to it, that smokes like every day or smoking all the time�� (female and never-smoker); ��either they smoke like at least once a day, I guess, or once or twice every other day, if they��re addicted to it�� (female and never-smoker); and ��I guess someone who smokes regularly. I��m not sure like how many times a day or week, but like I don��t think they��re addicted but they feel the need to smoke. I think it could be from like a couple times a Cilengitide week to every day�� (female and never smoker).