Dataset on perception among male secondary school students on underage smoking in Jordan

The World Health Organization (WHO) revealed in 2015 that the percentage of smokers in Jordan is one of the highest in the world, reaching 70.2% among males and consequently ranking first in the Middle Eastern region and second in the world. Cigarettes are the most widely abused substance among school students in Jordan. This poses severe health risks to the public. The WHO emphasizes that one of the most important public health goals related to smoking is to reduce its harmful effects on the individual as well as society and the prevention and treatment of injuries. This article explores the nature of smoking among school students, binge smoking, and the consequences of smoking. Secondary school students undergo developmental transitions, and this comes with debilitating effects such as the risky use of cigarettes, which adversely affects their health and educational achievements. This article comprises data obtained from 1166 participants (ages 14–17 years) from selected schools in Jerash, near Amman, Jordan. For data collection, a youth questionnaire on underage smoking was utilized. The article presents information on the participants’ smoking demographic. Analyses of the data can provide insights into the reasons for the smoking habits of the youth, the negative effects of smoking on school students, strategies to reduce smoking consumption, level of consumption of daily smokers, health issues caused by smoking, the prevalence of smoking, the effect of smoker parents on stimulating their children, and common smoking areas. The data will be useful for institutions dealing with prevalent health problems in society (Smoking causes health problems that affect students' learning) as well as benefit future researchers.


a b s t r a c t
The World Health Organization (WHO) revealed in 2015 that the percentage of smokers in Jordan is one of the highest in the world, reaching 70.2% among males and consequently ranking first in the Middle Eastern region and second in the world. Cigarettes are the most widely abused substance among school students in Jordan. This poses severe health risks to the public. The WHO emphasizes that one of the most important public health goals related to smoking is to reduce its harmful effects on the individual as well as society and the prevention and treatment of injuries. This article explores the nature of smoking among school students, binge smoking, and the consequences of smoking. Secondary school students undergo developmental transitions, and this comes with debilitating effects such as the risky use of cigarettes, which adversely affects their health and educational achievements. This article comprises data obtained from 1166 participants (ages 14 e17 years) from selected schools in Jerash, near Amman, Jordan. For data collection, a youth questionnaire on underage smoking was utilized. The article presents information on the participants' smoking demographic. Analyses of the data can provide insights into the reasons for the smoking habits of the youth, the negative effects of smoking on school students, strategies to reduce smoking consumption, level of consumption of daily smokers, health issues caused by smoking, the prevalence of smoking, the effect of smoker parents on stimulating their children, and common smoking areas. The data will be useful for institutions dealing with prevalent health problems in society (

Data description
The data presented below was obtained through a structured questionnaire. The number of respondents involved in the survey was 1166. Fig. 1 shows the frequency of distribution by age: 270 (23%) e 14 years, 311 (27%) e 15 years, 322 (28%) e 16 years, and 263 (22%) e 17 years. Among the respondents, there were 914 (78.3%) smokers and 252 (21.7%) non-smokers (Table 1). Table 2 represents data on the frequency of cigarette consumption. Data derived in relation to the question 'Does smoking cause health problems?' shows that 876 respondents agreed and 38 disagreed (Table 8). Table 9 illustrates the data collected on the prevalence of smoking, based on the age of the smokers, to check whether it has increased, decreased, or remained at the same level. Table 3 illustrates data regarding the question 'Do your parents smoke?'. The respondents also answered questions about the reasons for youth taking up the habit of smoking, and the most common answers were "Parental stimulation," "To appear strong," and "Family problems" ( Table 4). The collected data revealed that the most common areas for smoking among school students were places around the school (Table 5), and the most common answer for the negative consequences of smoking was "Unpleasant odor" [6]. Table 7 shows that the most common strategy considered to reduce cigarette smoking was "Educate students in schools about the harmful effects of smoking." The researcher relied on the following educational literature in writing the research [1e7].

Research design
The research adopted a descriptive survey design to evaluate the dataset on the perception among male secondary school students on underage smoking in Jordan. This dataset included 1166 students from selected secondary schools in Jerash, Jordan. Fig. 1 Distribution of respondents by age.
Specification Table   Subject Curriculum and Instruction, Educational Psychology Specific subject area Psychology of Learning and Education, Counseling Psychology Type of data Tables and Figures  How data was acquired Field survey techniques were adopted for data collection Data format Raw, analyzed, Descriptive and Inferential statistical data Parameters for data collection Frequency and percentage Description of data collection The questionnaire was distributed to respondents and analyzed using SPSS Data source location The Ministry of Education, Jerash Governorate Education Directorate, Jordan Data accessibility The data is included in this article

Value of the Data
The details of the data can be used to strategize on how to reduce underage smoking in Jordan and the data can be compared with that from other countries. The data provided can prove useful in analyzing the age differences within the demographic in relation to the volume of smoking.
The data can be used by counseling psychologists working with senior secondary school (high school) students. The data may serve as a heuristic basis for future research on smoking.
The data can assist with planning for public health interventions.

Instruments
The researcher adopted the use of a questionnaire to collect data for this survey. This questionnaire had 11 questions including 7 specific questions and 4 open-ended questions based on the responses to the specific questions. The first question dealt with respondents' socio-demographic characteristics (Appendix).

Instrument validity and reliability
The questionnaire was checked by experts for proper language, clarity, relevance, and comprehensiveness of the content, and a pilot survey was conducted to ensure that the questionnaire yielded consistent finding. This included a pretesting survey among male secondary school students in Jordan which is not included in the research sample to ensure accuracy in data.

Data sample
The data sample consisted of 1166, were chosen at random from all secondary schools.

Data analyses
The researcher coded the questionnaire questions and their answers, by number, according to the number of options available for each question. This was entered into an Excel sheet, and the data was analyzed using SPSS for frequency and percentage.
For instance, the first question was coded Q1, and the answers were coded as follows: 14 years was coded (1), 15 years was coded (2), 16 years was coded (3), and 17 years was coded (4). A similar process was followed for the rest of the questions and their corresponding data.

Research questions
The data attempted to answer the following questions: 1. Why prompts underage male secondary school students in Jordan to smoke? 2. What are male secondary school students' most preferred places to smoke? 3. What are the negative effects of smoking on underage male secondary school students? 4. What are the optimal strategies to reduce cigarette consumption in male secondary school students? 5. Does smoking cause health problems in male secondary school students? 6. Is the number of cigarettes consumed per day by male secondary school students increasing, decreasing, or the same?

Dataset
The survey data was collected as presented in the following tables.
According to Table 1 the number of smokers (914) and non-smokers (252) from 1166 respondents, Distributed for ages (14e17 years). The researcher emphasizes the effect of smoking on the academic achievement of students as confirmed by a research [1,2].

The data questions
What prompts underage male secondary school students in Jordan to smoke?
What are your most preferred places to smoke?
What are the negative effects of smoking on underage male secondary school students?
What are the optimal strategies to reduce cigarette smoking in male secondary school students?
According to Table 7 (30 %) of the respondents' strategies to reduce smoking consumption "Educate students in schools about the harmful effects of smoking", (24%) "Activate the role of the media in raising awareness on the harmful effects of smoking". (24%) "Raising parents' awareness of the causes of smoking and (22%) "Prohibition of smoking in public places".
Does smoking cause health problems in male secondary school students?
According to Table 8  Is the number of cigarettes consumed per day by male secondary school students increasing, decreasing, or the same?
According to Table 9 the number of cigarettes consumed per day increased (70) 14 years, (180) 15 years, (256) 16 years and (214) 17 years. The researcher emphasizes the effect of smoking on the student's ability to retrieve information during the lectures as confirmed by a researcher [7]. Table 9 The prevalence of smoking based on the respondents' ages.   Table 7 The data collected on different strategies to reduce smoking consumption.
Approaches to decrease cigarette use Frequency/(%) Rank Educate students in schools about the harmful effects of smoking 600 (30%) 1st Activate the role of the media in raising awareness on the harmful effects of smoking 485 (24%) 2nd Raising parents' awareness of the causes of smoking 479 (24%) 3rd Prohibition of smoking in public places 436 (22%) 4th Funding This data did not receive any external funding and was independently financed.