Learning Objectives: Describe the association of attitudinal factors and smoking status according to ethnic differences among teenagers in East Texas.
Abstract: As part of the Texas Tobacco Prevention Initiative, the Texas Department of Health is conducting a comprehensive pilot project in eight East Texas counties to reduce consumption. This presentation focuses on the results of data from three consecutive surveys conducted with middle and high school students during the spring and autumn of 2000, and spring of 2001 (n=38,000, 44,000, and 42,000 respectively). Using logistic regression analysis, the attitudinal factors more strongly associated with smoking status were the beliefs that ‘smoking smells and tastes bad,’ ‘smoking does not help people relax,’ and ‘smoking is stupid.’ There were significant differences among the major ethnic groups. For Anglo-Saxon students, beliefs about tobacco’s smell/taste, its relaxing effect, and smoking being stupid, showed the strongest association with smoking status, followed by ‘smoking makes you look cool.’ For African Americans, the beliefs more strongly linked to smoking status were ‘smokers have more friends,’ and ‘smoking helps with boredom.’ In this group, the belief that ‘second hand smoking is dangerous’ was also associated with smoking, but ‘smoking helps people relax’ was not. For Latino children, the attitudinal factor with the strongest association with smoking status was ‘smoking is stupid.’ Beliefs such as ‘tobacco is addictive,’ and ‘tobacco kills’ were not associated with smoking status. Gender and middle/high school differences will be discussed, as well as how data from these surveys is currently used to guide audience segmentation and message tailoring.
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