Caribbean Ia

SUBJECT CARIBBEAN STUDIES
TEACHER’S NAME
STUDENT’S NAME
FORM
YEAR
SCHOOL
SCHOOL CODE
STUDENT I.D. _____________
TOPIC How does smoking affect the Academic performance of lower and upper six students of Presentation College?

Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Almighty God for giving me the strength and perseverance to successfully complete this research project. I would also like to thank my class mates, close friends and family for their assistance and support during the course of this research. Not forgetting the students for their cooperation I filling out questionnaires and for their contribution to this research. And lastly I would like to thank my teacher Mr. Harripaulsingh for his guidance during the course of this research.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Topic | Page # | Introduction | 3 | Literature Review | 4 | Data Collection Sources | 5 | Presentation of Data | 6 | Interpretation of Findings | 10 | Discussion | 12 | Conclusion, Recommendations & Limitations | 14 | References | 15 | Appendix | 16 |

INTRODUCTION
Drug/substance abuse refers to harmful or hazardous usage of psychoactive substances, including alcohol and illicit drugs. A psychoactive drug is a substance which acts primarily upon the central nervous system where it alters brain function, resulting in change, mood, in perception consciousness, and behavior as well. These drugs may be used recreationally, to purposefully alter one’s consciousness, for ritual or spiritual purposes, as a tool for studying or therapeutically as medication.
Smoking is a practice in which the substances tobacco or cannabis is and its smoke is tasted or inhaled. Tobacco smoking is the most popular form of smoking. And is most used in the form of cigarettes but can also be hand rolled from loose tobacco and rolling paper.

Purpose of research
The reason for selecting this area of research is to investigate the effects of smoking on the students of Presentation College between enrolled in upper and lower six level education and their academic performance and to assess whether it is beneficial to the student or if it is a problem which should more attention should be given to.

Problem statement
How does smoking affect the academic performance of upper and lower six students of Presentation College.

Research questions: * What are the factors which cause students to pick up smoking? * What are the causes for students smoking in school? * What are the impacts of smoking on academic success?

Educational value of research:
This research is structured to make an appropriate analysis on the impact of smoking in the school environment. This in turn will draw attention to the factors of associated with students smoking in the school and from and will serve to educate students , parents as well as teachers ways and methods which can possibly alleviate the problem or how to assist those affected physically, socially or mentally.

Literature review
Despite the harmful effects associated with cigarette smoking, more and more younger people tend to gravitate towards this drug as a means of escaping the harsh realities of life. Smoking is used by many as a medium of releasing stress. Over the years there has been a remarkable increase in tobacco consumption in teens specifically males.
According to a study in Britain, 11 to 15% of boys begin smoking, in small amounts, before the age of 10. One of the main contributors to this phenomenon is the stereotyping of masculinity and roughness with cigarette smoking displayed in the media. Another factor, highlighted by researcher Jeff Carpenter, is time spent in the company of smokers as this too often encourages young boys to begin the habit. In the study “Tobacco Use Among Teens Is Dangerously High” by Jeff Carpenter, he stated that 34% of US high schools and 15% of middle school students use tobacco products according to government health officials.
A study by the Harvard School of Public Health published in a 2004 issue of "Pediatrics" found that 51% of the smokers studied called themselves "social smokers" while at school, meaning that they only smoked while in the company of others.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention notes that some college students use cigarettes as a way of reducing stress. Students believe that smoking calms them during high-stress situations such class workload, earning money while at school and social difficulties. While nicotine can give students a temporary calming effect, smoking can cause more stress while trying to quit or when cigarettes are unavailable.
Although smoking among adolescents and young adults is associated with socio-economic status and educational achievement, determinants of smoking among college students are largely unknown. The health behaviors of young adults are important because this group is in a transition between adolescence and early adulthood, a time during which unhealthy behaviors developed during adolescence may be malleable or may be consolidated into lifetime patterns.

DATA COLLECTION SOURCES
To obtain the needed data for this investigation both primary and secondary sources were used,
The essential primary data and information for the study was attained by a stratified random sampling survey in the format of a questionnaire. This was the method of investigation used to collect the data needed for the study. This method was selected because it maintains a certain privacy level between the participant and the investigator so the participant will be more comfortable when selecting their responses to the questionnaire. The questionnaire method has proven an efficient method of investigation and it also makes the process of analyzing data easier because of its clear representation of the data. The questionnaire (copy provided in the appendix) consisted of opened and closed questions.
The questionnaires were distributed to25 upper six students ad 25 lower six students since this was the target group. This activity of distributing the questionnaires took place on the 25th February 2012 and the questionnaires were returned/ collected on the same day. However because of the biased format of the questionnaire only 20 questionnaires able to be used for the study as not all students who received a copy of the questionnaire were smokers.

PRESENTATION OF DATA

Figure 1.0
Graph displaying the ethnicity of the participants of the questionnaire and their numbers.

Figure 2.0
Graph displaying the responses of participants to question 3 in the questionnaire.

Fig 3.0
Chart displaying the negative impact of smoking on student academic success.

Question # | Question | Yes | No | 3 | Do you have friends who smoke? | 9 | 11 | 5 | Are you addicted to smoking? | 10 | 10 | 7 | Have you experienced any of the negative health effects of smoking? | 4 | 16 | 8 | Do you smoke during/in school? | 13 | 7 | 9 | Does smoking positively affect your academic performance? | 10 | 10 | 10 | Does smoking negatively affect your academic performance? | 7 | 13 | 11 | Do you want to quit smoking? | 13 | 7 | Figure 4.0 Table showing data collected based on respective questions in the questionnaire.

INTERPRETATION and FINDINGS Out of the 20 questionnaires 12 of the participants were upper six students and 8 were lower six students. 8 of the participants were Indian, 6 were mixed, 5 were African and 1 was Chinese. Although there are more Indian smokers in the study, ethnicity as being a factor of smoking will be overruled in this case because majority if the school’s population is Indian followed by Mixed, African and then Chinese. So the proportion of smokers is reflective of the student population as well.
Question 3 in the appendix asks “Do you have friends who smoke?” 9 out of the 20 participants answered yes and 11 stated no. For question 4 of the appendix which asks “Why did you start smoking?” the target group answered with responses such as stress, curiosity, peer pressure, rebelliousness and low self esteem. In this question participants were asked to state multiple reasons and stress was the most influential factor, the individuals followed up the response saying such thing as stress and home and the stress of school were the main causes, they needed something to help them relax and tobacco smoking was the most effective substance. Curiosity was another major factor of picking up the habit.
When further investigation was done it was seen that the 7 who put peer pressure as a response had friends who smoke out of a total of 9 people who said they had friends who smoke. There were 12 uppers sixes involved in the study and in reference to question 6 of the appendix out of the 10 who ticked who said they had been smoking for two years 10 of them were from upper six and the five who ticked 1 year were all belonging to the lower six level. 2 participants were smoking for about 3 years and 3 of them for as much as four years. When further investigation was done it was seen that those who were smoking for four years, 2 of them were in lower six, which meant that these participants began smoking in form 3. This means that these students were exposed to smoking from a young age. A total of 10 students admitted to being addicted to smoking but based on the data gathered 13 of the students admitted to smoking in school. Giving reasons such as because of their addiction peer pressure, stress and rebelliousness. The students were required to provide multiple reasons for this and the factor of addiction recurred 10 times as well as the stress factor with rebelliousness being the least important and factor and peer pressure with a total of six. This again reaffirms that stress is the most prevalent factor in the cause of students picking up smoking and 20% of the participants responded positively when asked if they have experienced and of the negative health effects of smoking thus far.75 % of the 20% smoking already smoking for 3 years. Smoking has both negative and positive impacts on the students’ academic performance with 50% benefitting from it and 35% experiencing negative impacts of it on their academic performance. This means that 15% of the students are not being affected by smoking at all or have not yet felt or realized the impact that smoking has on them. Some of the positive impacts stated were that it relieves the stress of school and stress of home. No more peer pressure so they are able to function better and they now seem “cool”. Some of the negative impacts stated were: that they are missing classes to smoke due to addiction, getting caught gets them in trouble and even suspended, they are now looked down upon by teachers and they have poor no recommendations and a stigmatized as trouble makers and they can’t help it because they are addicted.
13 out of the 20 said they want to stop smoking, 7 of the 13 saying because they know it’s bad for their health and 6 of them saying because it gets them in trouble. Even though there were only 10 participants admitting to be addicted to smoking. Since there are 13 participants who want to quit smoking shows that maybe not all of the participants were truthful when asked if they were addicted to smoking based on the response to question 13.7 do not want to stop smoking, 3 of these 7 said because it helps with stress, 3 admitted to being rebellious and one stated it helps with their social status (could be a victim of peer pressure).

DISCUSSION
The prevalence of smoking in Presentation College has been on a steady increase within the last 3 years. Smoking is looked down upon in society as an undesirable and negative contribution. However, in spite of this increase in smoking, the overall average of the school’s academic profile for C.X.C and C.A.P.E results are steadily increasing as well as, the school capturing the President’s medal in 2011 C.A.P.E. This triggers curiosity that in spite of the increase in this negative and banned school activity, from an outsider’s perspective the school seems to maintain its academic rank as one of the best schools in Trinidad. Hence, the main purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of smoking on Upper and Lower Six C.A.P.E level students.
This study was broken into 3 separate investigations: * What are the factors which cause students to start smoking? * What causes students to smoke in school? * What are the impacts of smoking on academic success of students?

What are the Factors which cause students to pick up smoking?
There are many factors which cause students to start smoking such as distress, curiosity, peer pressure, rebelliousness and low self esteem. Stress however, is the factor responsible for students picking up the habit such as stress at home, from the workload and pressure to do well at school. Other mechanisms of coping were also tried and experimented by the students but smoking seemed to be most effective for them. Most of the students picked up the habit of smoking in early Lower Six, which does again reaffirm the fact that stress one of the factors heavily responsible for it and possibly just the stress of school for most of the students. The factor of curiosity is explained by the students’ transition from teenager into adulthood and seeing other smokers in practice on the school compound. These were the two most important factors. Ethnicity was not seen a considerable factor as the ethnicity of the participants were proportional to the schools numerical population of each race.

What are the causes for students smoking in school?
The reasons why students are found smoking in school during school are similar or almost same as the reasons why they initially picked up the habit. By this time, most of the students cannot help but smoke in school because it has become an addiction and the stress of the workload remains a prevalent cause. Other causes are rebelliousness as they no longer care about school and think that form six was a mistake and peer pressure so they can look “cool”.

What are the impacts of smoking on academic success?
This study proves that smoking has both negative and positive impacts on students’ academic performance. However, the negative impacts outweigh the positive even though 50% of the participants stated that it has positively impacted on their academic performance. The positive impacts included that it relieves stress at home and school so they are better able to focus on their work, they are now no longer victims of peer pressure and are no longer socially isolated but are now “cool” or socially accepted.
The negative impact on the students’ academic performance are missing classes to smoke because of their addiction, getting in trouble for smoking on the school premises, being looked down upon by teachers and attaining poor recommendations. These are long term impacts which can severely damage or alter a student’s future. Even though they may want to quit smoking, they are hampered of doing so because of their addiction and because of the short term positive impacts of smoking. Even though very detrimental to health in future years, an addiction is very hard to break.

Conclusion, Limitations and Recommendations
CONCLUSION
In concluding this investigation, the research questions stated previously in the introduction, were answered. The major findings of this investigation were the impacts of smoking on the academic performance of CAPE students and Presentation College, San Fernando. The impacts were both negative and positive either helping them focus on or taking their focus away from their work. Smoking is discouraged by the Ministry of Health and the sale of cigarettes to minors is a crime punishable by law. In spite of this study showing positive effects of the substance, these are only short term and can be very detrimental to health.
LIMITATIONS
* All participants in the questionnaire were males so the results are not applicable to females. * Not all returned questionnaires were applicable to the study because all participants were not smokers. * The study only targeted a specific group of students and will not be a reflection of the entire student body. * Some students did not take the questionnaire seriously and submitting false answers.
RECOMMENDATIONS
After conducting such an investigation the following recommendations were given: * In order to stop the increase in smokers, students should be guided by teachers and past students as to how to successfully manage their time and the workload at school so that they would not encounter as much distress as if they did not have a structure. * Before entering form six, there should be an orientation period where the students could get a preview of what the workload will be like to prepare them for the next two years of study instead of the drastic change from the CXC to CAPE syllabus. * There should be a forum in place where students could voice their opinion about the way the teachers carry out teaching their syllabus and address any problems if encountered.

REFERENCES
LIVESTRONG.COM
http://www.livestrong.com/article/237322-smoking-influences-on-college-students/
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1508383/pdf/amjph00013-0106.pdf APPENDIX 1. What form are you in?
Upper Six Lower Six 2. What is your ethnicity?
Chinese African Indian Mixed 3. Do you have friends who smoke?
Yes No 4. Why did you start Smoking? (tate multiple reasons if possible)
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
5. Are you addicted to smoking?
Yes No 6. How long have you been smoking? 1 year 2 years 3 years 4 years 5 years Other _____

7. Have you experienced any of the negative health effects of smoking?
Yes No 8. Do you smoke during/in school?
Yes No 9. If Yes state why. (Give multiple reasons if possible)
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
10. Does smoking positively affect your academic performance?
Yes No 11. If so state how
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
12. Does smoking negatively affect your academic performance?
Yes No

13. If so, state how
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
14. Do you want to quit smoking?
Yes No 15. If Yes state why
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
16. If No state why
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