Personal Health Practices and Coping

At the time of my study, it seemed that all study participants had at least one adult smoker in their home and I noticed that the air quality in the homes was often poor if the windows were not opened. I wondered how many of the parents smoked in the presence of the children, thereby exposing them to this dangerous carcinogen. In my initial interview in this community, the mother sat sprawled across her couch in a nightgown with a cigarette in her hand and an overflowing ashtray beside her. Indeed, smoking was such a natural phenomenon that, as I was setting up my tape recorder, she pushed her large container of tobacco toward me and invited me to help myself. I continued the interview without availing myself of her generosity. Then, she suddenly stopped talking after about ten minutes and asked, "You don't mind rolling your own, do you?" Although this woman had no qualms about the state of her dress in front of a stranger and she was certainly cognizant of a code of courtesy in sharing, she was concerned about my possible dis-ease²³ with her offer since I had not yet started rolling my own cigarettes. Certainly, it seemed at the time that it might not have crossed her mind even that perhaps I was a non-smoker. Afraid of making my participant feel uncomfortable or of not being accepted because I did not smoke, I chose not to disclose to her that I was a non-smoker.

There was an incident that suggested to me that smoking may be linked to domestic violence in the life of at least one of the participants in this study. When this woman noticed a small round scar on my hand, she asked who had inflicted such a wound and if it was from a cigarette burn. Later, as the interview proceeded with this participant, I learned about the violence that she had endured in her life from her former husband. She openly retold stories of being wrestled and restricted against her will and having her sleep intentionally interrupted. As I listened to her, I found myself undressing this fully clothed being in front of me and imagining scars on her naked body that served as reminders from her years of beatings.

²³ dis-ease is used here to refer to the lack of the sense of comfort or ease.