Young women's contradictory constructions and experiences of cigarette smoking

Abstract

The impacts of cigarette smoking on health are now well documented. Although overall rates of smoking in Australia have been declining for many decades, smoking remains a leading cause of death and disease. Research has begun to explore the ways in which smoking is experienced by young women, however, several gaps in this field of knowledge remain. There is a need for further research to help us understand the multiple, contradictory, and intersecting identity positions which shape young women's smoking. Moreover, there is a need for research which adopts novel methodological approaches, such as participant-produced photography, and different theories such as poststructuralist and intersectionality theory, to further our understandings of the social context in which young women's smoking is situated. In this thesis I explore the ways in which young women smokers and ex-smokers construct and experience cigarette smoking. In order to do this, I situate my thesis in a social constructionist epistemological paradigm, and ask two research questions: "What discourses do young women draw on to construct their smoking?" and "What implications do young women's discursive constructions of smoking have on their subjectivity, smoking practices, and interactions with anti-smoking campaigns and policies?" Data collection for this study took place between 2014 and 2015. Young Australian women aged 18 to 31, smokers and ex-smokers, took part in a three-stage qualitative study involving interviews, a participant-produced photography activity, and follow-up interviews. The data were analysed using discourse analysis, and intersectionality and poststructuralist theories. The analysis of the data is presented in four referred journal articles. The conclusion, bringing together the findings from these four articles, argues that smoking takes up multiple, often contradictory meanings and functions in young women's lives: feminine and unfeminine, a source of risk and a way of coping, an addiction and a choice. These findings have implications for the development of tobacco control responses which recognise young women's agency and the complexity and contradiction that characterises their smoking, as well as acknowledging the multiple identities that shape their experiences with smoking.

Date of Award	2018
Original language	English