The Perceived Quality of Leisure Experiences among Smoking and Nonsmoking Adolescents

The leisure experiences of 1,407 smoking and nonsmoking adolescents were contrasted with respect to their perceived quality. Leisure attitudes and behavior were measured with regard to both the adolescents’ general approach to free time and their most common use of free time. Compared with nonsmokers, adolescents who smoked during their most common leisure activity were found to be more bored, and less challenged; they felt less competent and evaluated their performance more severely. Similarly, a general pattern of cigarette smoking over the previous year was associated with a general percepton of leisure time as having produced boredom, anxiety, a feeling of low compentence, and less challenge. Smokers and nonsmokers, however, were equally aware of leisure opportunities. These findings indicated that adolescents who smoke find their leisure time to be qualitatively less fulfilling than do nonsmoking adolescents.