METHODS: This qualitative study utilized in-depth interviews with 34 young Malaysian university men, aged 20-30 years from three main ethnic groups in Malaysia (Malay, Chinese and Indian). Thematic analysis approach was used to extract data. NVIVO v8 qualitative software was used for data management.
RESULTS: From the data collected several concepts emerged that reflected the meanings of masculinity from the participants' view points. These meanings were associated with a combination of traditional and non-traditional norms that generally benefit men who behave according to culturally dominant role expectations. These included: "Having a good body shape", "being respected", "having success with women", "being a family man", and "having financial independence". Socio-cultural factors, such as family environment, religion, public media and popular life style patterns helped to shape and reinforce the meanings of masculinities among university men.
CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed that the university context provided a particular culture for construction and reinforcement of the meanings of masculinities, which should be considered by the educators to help in development of healthy masculinities.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thos longitudinal study started in February 2011 and the subjects were 2552 form one students aged between twelve to thirteen years of from 15 government secondary schools of Kinta, Perak. Data on demographic, parental, school and peer factors were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. We examined the effects of peer, school and parental factors on the five stages of smoking; never smokers, susceptible never smokers, experimenters, current smokers and ex-smokers, at baseline.
RESULTS: In the sample, 19.3% were susceptible never smokers, 5.5% were current smokers 6% were experimenters and 3.1% were ex-smokers. Gender, ethnicity, best friends' smoking status, high peer pressure, higher number of relatives who smoked and parental monitoring were found to be associated with smoking stages. Presence of parent-teen conflict was only associated with susceptible never smokers and experimenters whereas absence of home discussion on smoking hazards was associated with susceptible never smokers and current smokers.
CONCLUSIONS: We identified variations in the factors associated with the different stages of smoking. Our results highlight that anti-smoking strategies should be tailored according to the different smoking stages.