When researching how to change the smoking mindset of the Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta campus, no information was more important than the perspective of students currently experiencing campus life.

I sat down with Chilmi, a 26 year old student studying international studies for his second time after exchanging to Germany and restarting his degree in Indonesia. Because of this, Chilmi had the interesting perspective with both German and Indonesian schooling experience. Chilmi stated that he does not and never had been a smoker, which surprised me given he was the only student out of the many I had asked who was not a smoker.

When asked if his socialising was affected by his not smoking, Chilmi stated that it was often difficult when all his friends gather to smoke and he feels like an “outsider”. He said this was especially difficult in his younger years, which isn’t surprising as research suggests that smoking increases dramatically between the ages of 11 and 17, from 8.2% to 38.7% (Smet, Maes, De Clerca, Haryanti, Winarno 1999). He was raised in a family of male smokers with both his father and brother smoking when he was younger. Although students are aware of the penalties for smoking on campus, Chilmi did not believe that either the non-smoking signs, nor the reminders students receive from lecturers were effective enough in convincing students to stop. 

As part of our group design product I researched the differing sociodemographic factors that can effect and change the determination of mindsets, summarised as education, experience and prejudice. I brought this into the conversation asking if these summarised categories sounded correct in changing ones perception of tobacco around campus. Chilmi responded positively stating that education and experience heavily influenced his decision not to smoke. He also discussed how further introducing other socialising experiences around campus could help in lowering the amount of smokers; having a slow progression into different social experiences as a way of replacing social smoking. 

A person’s values guide their everyday life and decision making. Quality changes through teachers, employees and educational institutions could be most effective therefore when changing the mindset. This can be divided into two parts, ‘the formulation of the mindset and the communication of the mindset’ (Yuliana 2018). The formulation of a mindset can be changed through trend watching, envisioning and formulation of paradigms. Whilst the communication of the mindset that has been formulated can be changed through both personal behaviour and operational behaviour. (Machali, Hidayat 2016). 

Chilmi helped me understand this, as what he experiences through his friends and his own personal reasoning for not smoking can be summarised under his minds formulation and communication.

References:

Machali, I., & Hidayat, A. 2016, The Handbook of Education Management, Jakarta, Kencana Prenada Media.

Yuliana, A. 2018, ‘Total Quality Educational Mindset Formation at Muhammadiyah Elementary School Kleco Yogyakarta’, Tadris: Jurnal Keguruan dan Ilmu Tarbiyah, vol. 3, pp. 1-67.

Smet, B. Maes, L. De Clerca, L. Haryanti, K. Winarno, R.D. 1999, ‘Determinants of smoking behaviour among adolescents in Semarang, Indonesia’, Tobacco Control, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 186-191.