Problem/Objective: The 2006 Monitoring the Future Survey reported that the decrease in daily youth smoking rates had slowed and in some grades came to a standstill. Concurrently, decreased funding for tobacco prevention and control as well as increased tobacco marketing efforts had been reported giving us more reason to uncover ways of helping young teens reject smoking. The goal of the present study is to develop and evaluate Students Making Advertisements to Reduce Tobacco (StartSMART), a comprehensive school-based tobacco prevention curriculum. With the support of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, this eight-session program and its components (facilitator's curriculum and training video, prevention program video, student workbook, parent and school administrator materials, and accompanying website) were created. StartSMART incorporates CDC's seven Guidelines for School Health Programs to Prevent Tobacco Use and Addiction, utilizes a social marketing approach to deliver tobacco prevention education, and informs youth of the tobacco industry's tactics to target them to smoke.

Methods: Middle school students observe, learn, and participate in delivering tobacco prevention messages as well as produce anti-tobacco advertisements through the use of a video camera. The first five sessions include activities on advertising, hazards of smoking, and how Big Tobacco targets teens. The remaining sessions give students an opportunity to produce an effective advertisement to help others resist tobacco.

Results: Results are pending. Preliminary results are expected in May, 2007.

Conclusions: Included in this presentation are a review of the program materials and demonstrations of the website, sample students ads, and program videos.