Factors influencing water-pipe tobacco smoking among Egyptian youth and the role of fear of negative evaluation

Abugarara, Sahar (2020) Factors influencing water-pipe tobacco smoking among Egyptian youth and the role of fear of negative evaluation. Doctoral thesis, Nothumbria University.

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Abstract

Water-pipe tobacco smoking (WTS) is contributing to global social and health problems and has been associated with diseases such as lung cancer, respiratory illness and periodontal disease. However, efforts to curb WTS are being hampered by the limited understanding of the factors that influence smoking for consumers who may not always be aware of the hazardous effects. Moreover, policy makers and social marketers have given very little attention to WTS cessation and awareness programs. Extant research indicates that social acceptance; personal and socio-cultural values strongly influence WTS. Nevertheless, the exact relationships between these factors are not fully examined, particularly for young consumers in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR), and countries where WTS is widely prevalent, such as Egypt. Examining these factors will contribute to expanding the limited body of academic knowledge regarding WTS attitudes and behaviour, enabling the creation of more effective social marketing campaigns and interventions that may help curb WTS.
This thesis draws from the marketing literature in an attempt to better understand how personal values, consumer socialisation agents (peers and parents), along with individual religiosity affect consumer attitudes and intentions towards WTS. The moderating effects of gender and the fear of negative evaluation (FNE) are also investigated. In order to carry on this research, eight key hypotheses were tested using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), based on data collected through a questionnaire survey of 402 Egyptian youths and young adults aged 18-30.
Findings show that: (1) conservation values, peer influence, and individual religiosity are influential factors in the formation of individual attitudes towards WTS; (2) but, parental influence has no role in shaping Egyptian youths’ attitudes towards WTS; (3) FNE moderates the relationship between attitudes towards WTS and the intentions to smoke; and (4) the effects of conservation values, peer influence, and individual religiosity on individual attitudes towards WTS do not differ significantly based on gender. Thus, this thesis develops and verifies a framework that contributes to theory by extending traditional theories of consumer behaviour (Theory of Planned Behaviour and Theory of Basic Values) and integrating them with social and personal constructs (Consumer Socialization, Religiosity and FNE) to predict WTS among young adults. The current study also contributes towards a better understanding of WTS specifically in Egypt, and highlights implications for wider social marketing theory and practice.

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