HIGH SCHOOL SMOKING PREVENTION PROGRAM

 

OVERVIEW

 

The High School Smoking Prevention Program seeks to reduce the rate of smoking among high school adolescents through two versions of the program. One intervention focuses on the social consequences of smoking, and the other intervention focuses on the immediate and long-term physiological effects of smoking. The treatment program, focusing on immediate and long-term effects of smoking, was found to reduce smoking behaviors, as was the program given to the control group, which focused on long-term effects; however, no differences were statistically significant.

 

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

 

Target population: Tenth grade students.

 

In the following evaluation, the authors use two treatment programs to study their effectiveness on reducing the rate of smoking habits among high school adolescents. Each program consists of three, one-hour sessions. The social consequences of smoking curriculum focused on social pressures to smoke, self-measurements of the immediate effects of smoking, and how to help others remain or become nonsmokers. The immediate effects of smoking curriculum group learned about the long-term health effects of smoking, self-measurements of the immediate effects of smoking, and how to help others remain or become nonsmokers.

 

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

  

Perry, C. L., M. J. Telch, et al. (1983). High School Smoking Prevention: The Relative Efficacy of Varied Treatments and Instructors. Adolescence. 18, 71, 561-566.

 

Evaluated population: Tenth grade health classes from four high schools in Northern California.

 

Approach: Twenty classes of 10^th graders were randomly assigned to one of three programs. Schools were randomly assigned to the teacher-taught or college-student taught conditions. Three teachers (alone) and four college students (in pairs) taught classes at the high schools, and staff members from Stanford University and the American Lung Association monitored all classes for compliance with the programs, provided materials, and reinforced instructors.

 

In this study, the long-term health effects curriculum is viewed as a control because it uses the traditional health education approach of fear-arousal to deter smoking. Control group students watched a slide show on the long-term health effects of smoking, made anti-smoking posters emphasizing health effects, and watched traditional anti-smoking health education films.

 

Students reported their smoking and health behaviors, submitted to carbon monoxide breath tests, and took surveys of knowledge on smoking. Five classrooms in each of the four schools were randomly assigned to one of the three conditions. The four schools were randomly assigned to two instructional approaches; in the first, students were taught by a classroom teacher and in the second, by college students. Students were also matched at pre-test and post-test by their anonymous codes.

 

Results: No significant, pre-test to post-test impacts  were found in this study. The authors noted that the lack of significant differences were likely due to the small sample size.

 

Note: The authors did not use the unit of random assignment, the classroom for the program, in analyses. They used the student as the unit of analysis.

 

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

 

References:

 

Perry, C. L., M. J. Telch, et al. (1983). High School Smoking Prevention: The Relative Efficacy of Varied Treatments and Instructors. Adolescence. 18, 71, 561-566.

 

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

 

Evaluated participant ages: Youth (14-16).

 

Program components: School-Based.

 

Measured outcomes: Physical Health.

 

KEYWORDS: Substance Use, Tobacco Use, High School, Adolescence (12-17).

 

Program information last updated 3/3/09

 

 

 

		© Child Trends 2003