Almost a quarter (22%) of the Romanian teenagers aged between 14 and 18 smoke regularly and 8% have used marijuana at least once, according to a study conducted by Open-I Research at the request of Educatia Azi magazine.

The parents’ influence, the family problems, and the entourage are some of the main factors that push teenagers to start smoking. Almost half of those who smoke have absent parents (43%) or a father who is not involved in the relationship with them (47%), reports local Agerpres.

Moreover, the dysfunctional relationships between parents also make teenagers smoke (35%), as well as the traumatic situations in the family (43%). If the adolescents have at least one parent who smokes, more than half of them also end up smoking regularly (61%).

On the other hand, only 36% of those who don’t smoke have smoking parents.

Another reason for smoking is the group’s influence (28%). Most of the smoking teenagers (70%) have a best friend who smokes.

When it comes to drugs, the study found out that the Romanian teenagers are not regular consumers. Most of the respondents said that they hadn’t used drugs in the last month.

About a third (32%) of those who smoke marijuana do it at their friends’ homes, and 18% prefer to do it on the street or in bars. Although most of the young people do not take drugs of any kind, 98% of them say that they know someone who used drugs at least once.

Similar to smoking tobacco, the teenagers start using drugs because of the problems in their families.

The study was conducted between September and October 2015 on a sample of more than 350 teenagers aged between 14 and 18.

More than a quarter of Romanians smoke regularly

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com