Up In The Air:

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Up In The Air
University of Kentucky Students Opinions about
the Smoking Ban
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Or
Susan Beckwith, Leslie Ezell and Sandra Schryver
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Objective of the Study
To explore the attitudes of University of
Kentucky undergraduate students regarding the
Lexington smoking ban.
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Literature Review
Previous literature has shown that second hand
smoke is considered a cancer-causing agent as the
result of scientific inquiry. Moreover, around
half of the American populations knows this,
which has raised concerns about public safety. A
study in a Canadian town discovered that strong
support for a smoking ban is greatest among older
adults with only 9 percent strongly supporting
the smoking ban when under 30 years old.
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Literature Review
A study conducted in Massachusetts showed that
81 of restaurant customers, 82 of restaurant
workers and 87 of bar workers were not protected
from second hand smoke exposure. An article
found at the New York Nightlife Association
(NYNA) website claimed that bars profit have
fallen 10-40 percent and that outdoor smoking has
deteriorated neighborhoods.
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Literature Review
The Post and Courier of Charleston reports that
tobacco smoke is the cause of over 400,000 deaths
per year in America and 1/8 of those deaths are
due to exposure to secondhand smoke. And
locally, University of Kentucky Survey Research
Center has surveyed Lexington residents and found
that 57 percent support the ban, while around 70
percent think the ban is ethical and desire
smoke-free environments.
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Research Questions and Hypotheses
RQ1 Are the majority of University of Kentucky
students in favor of the smoking ban? RQ2 What
sources of information did University of Kentucky
students use to learn about the smoking
ban? RQ3 Does second-hand smoke contribute to
University of Kentucky students supporting the
ban? RQ4 Do different ages of University of
Kentucky students differ in their support of the
smoking ban? RQ5 Do University of Kentucky
students plan to go out less than they did
before, if the ban is put in effect? RQ6 How
will University of Kentucky students behaviors
change after the ban is in effect? H Women
favor the smoking ban more than men do.
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Methods
We sampled 34 University of Kentucky Students
through selected classes on random days. 21 were
female and 13 were male, and 7 were smokers and
27 were non-smokers. We also conducted two focus
groups. The first had 7 participants, 3 were
female and 4 were male. The second had 4
participants who were divided equally by
gender. Our Cronbachs alpha was 0.708 .
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Results
48 of students support and 33 oppose the ban.
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Results
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Results
64 - Offensive 15 - Not Offensive
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Results
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Results
The majority of students (68 for bars and 65
for restaurants) did not believe they would be
affected by the smoking ban. For both bars and
restaurants, 9 of students would go out less
often. More students (24 for bars and 27 for
restaurants) would go out more often.
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Results
According to our survey a significant number of
students believed that outdoor smoking would
increase (94.1), and to a lesser degree that we
would have a healthy community (64.7) and more
people would quit smoking as a result of the ban
(32.4). Furthermore, no one thought that the
smoking ban would not affect the community. Our
focus groups suggested that there would be more
outdoor cigarette buds, smoky doorways, at home
parties, and that bars would be hurt most because
smoking can be social.
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Results
Moreover, they suggested it would further
marginalize smokers. They did not seem to regard
it as likely to cause people to quit smoking. And
our focus groups both observed that the ban would
most likely affect University of Kentucky
students less than other populations because they
smoke less in restaurants (according to
observation), have less children, drink or smoke
socially, and are less likely to have lost a
loved one to lung cancer.
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THANK YOU!!! Questions?