Abstract:
Smoking especially among adolescents is an important problem in Thai society. since, its prevalence is increasing and age of starting is decreasing. The purposes of this study research were to describe the prevalence of smoking in early stage, life assets, and factors related to early smoking stage among male upper primary school students. A cluster random was used to draw 390 representative sample who were male grade 6 students in Kalasin province. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Binary logistic regression. Findings of the study showed that the prevalence of early smoking stage was 43.0%. Life assets include 5 power; power of self, power of family, power of wisdom, power of peer and activity, and power of community. The overall participants life assets was at good level (73.5%). Among those 5 powers of participants, power of family and power of self were at very good levels (84.5% and 83.3% respectively); power of peer and activity was at good level (72.5%); power of community was at moderate level (68.9%); and power of wisdom was not passing criteria. The significant factors related to early smoking stage among male upper primary school students were closed people smoking (AOR = 3.37, 95% CI = 1.09-10.44), cigarette accessibility (AOR = 2.86, 95% CI = 1.75-4.68), attitude toward smoking (AOR = 2.75, 95% CI = 1.09-6.95), smoking refusal self-efficacy (AOR = 2.47, 95% CI = 1.52-4.01), power of family (AOR = 1.94, 95% CI=1.18-3.18), power of peer and activity (AOR = 1.42, 95% CI = 1.17-1.74), power of self (AOR = 1.24, 95% CI = 1.04-1.48), and power of community (AOR = 1.15, 95% CI = 1.03-1.30). Results of study will be beneficial to nurse, health personnel, and those who are involved to prevent and reduce smoking initiation among male adolescents.