In contrast to medical orthodoxy, Smoking in Adolescence looks at smoking from adolescents' own points of view, asking why more girls smoke than boys, at the factors which influence adolescents to take up smoking. What emerges is that regular smokers are seen as fun-loving and nonconformist; cigarettes are a passport to a fashionable, popular and 'hard' identity.

Concepts of adolescent development and problem behaviour, sensation seeking and risk taking are explored, and then smoking is examined in an international context by means of a review of major published studies. Smoking in Adolescence will be of practical interest to teachers, youth workers, health professionals and parents as well as students of psychology.