Caroline Smith PhD Researcher, Centre for Population Health Sciences, University of Edinburgh
Abstract
Social networks (SN) are increasingly seen as important in smoking cessation, yet a failure to capture real-world social processes has meant that efforts to develop interventions that increase SN support have been unsuccessful. This qualitative study combined a novel, interactive and quitter-centred approach to SN mapping, with in-depth exploration of the complex inter-relationships between participants’ social networks and their quit experiences.
Thirteen participants from diverse socio-demographic backgrounds were interviewed four weeks after quitting, and a thematic analysis undertaken. While previous research has portrayed quitters as responding passively to their social networks, here the centrality and importance of individual agency emerged as key, with participants adopting three main strategies in trying to navigate their social networks and sustain their quit attempt: (1) seeking to make sense of family and friends’ responses, both in relation to their specific actions and their wider social relationships; (2) managing their social networks, taking control of their social environments and altering their interactions within them; (3) using available social resources, drawing on lay stories of quitting, and modelling their behaviour on, and judging their success against, other quitters.
Efforts to develop SN-based smoking cessation interventions must look beyond a simple focus on increasing social network support.
