Parent Guide: A Guide to Youth Smoking Prevention Policies and Programs

Wendy Schwartz

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The number of young people who smoke is decreasing, but one third of them still smoke regularly. The social problems in many urban areas often lead to smoking by teenagers. They believe--wrongly--that tobacco will help reduce their stress and make them look "cool" instead of insecure. Teenagers may even think that because smoking is an adult thing to do, they will actually become more mature by acquiring the habit. For females, who smoke as much as males, the desire to look confident is an important cause of smoking.

A major reason why fewer youth have become hooked on cigarettes in the last 20 years is that they have been exposed to heavy anti-smoking campaigns in the media, in school and the community, and at home. In addition, tobacco advertising and sales have been limited by legal restrictions, and over the next few years Federal regulations will put even more limits on marketing to youth.

Recently, though, tobacco companies have found new ways to promote their products to youth. They support their sporting events and concerts, and even give them discounts on hip clothing. Many of the companies' promotions especially target African Americans and Latinos. These youth, like some other urban and ethnic groups, have not responded as well as whites to anti-smoking campaigns because they often are not culturally relevant.

It seems that youth are beginning to participate in the current cigar fad, which has been spread through positive media stories showing celebrities of all ethnicities smoking. Also, smoking promotions appear frequently on the Internet. If youth smoking begins to increase again, it will be in spite of the fact that every year the habit kills more people than drugs, alcohol, AIDS, fires, homicide, suicide, and automobile accidents combined.

It is necessary to keep giving teenagers a serious anti-smoking education, provided in ways that reflect their cultures and experiences.

Effective Anti-Smoking Education

The following points are important to include in an anti-smoking education:

Smoking is not personally or socially desirable. Debunk the myths that tobacco is necessary for stress reduction, an attractive appearance, and a good social life. Point out that the places where smoking is allowed are decreasing--evidence that fewer people smoke and that many people, including teenagers, don't want to be near cigarette smoke.

Speak directly to girls, possibly in separate programs. Give them information showing the falseness of their beliefs that smoking will help them lose weight, make friends, and look sophisticated.

Smoking takes away a smoker's free choice.Adolescents want to be in control of all areas of their lives. So show them how tobacco addiction takes away free will, particularly the ability to stop smoking, despite a smoker's desire to quit.

Smoking is not an adult habit or an effective act of rebellion. Present the fact that only 27 percent of adults smoke to show that smoking doesn't go hand-in-hand with maturity. Tell teenagers who want to resist controls on their lives that their target shouldn't be non-smoking adults. Instead, they should rebel against anyone who wants to hook them on a habit that is very hard to break.

Smoking destroys good health. Show them the probable physical effects of smoking in full detail. Warnings about future health consequences may not be as effective as other messages, though, because youth usually do not believe they will ever have serious physical problems. Teenagers also have difficulty envisioning themselves (i.e., still smoking) later in life.

Show the dangers of second-hand smoke. This is as another way of telling smokers what health problems they are likely to face, and it encourages non-smoking teens to make smokers feel unwelcome.

Most teenagers do not smoke. Point out that fewer than 20 percent of teenagers smoke regularly. In fact, in California, only 5 percent do. Therefore, youth who begin to smoke because their peers do are really caving to perceived pressures from a minority.

It is okay to refuse to smoke. Teenagers will at times feel a pressure to smoke, no matter how slight, and to engage in other behavior they may not want to. Therefore, it is very important to help youth develop "refusal skills" to give them the courage to remain true to their own desires and beliefs.

Anti-Smoking Policies, Programs, and Practices

It is best to provide an anti-tobacco education in a variety of ways and places. It should begin early in children's lives because on average youth smoke their first cigarette at age 13. It should continue all through school, because some youth, especially African Americans, do not begin smoking until they graduate.

Anti-smoking programs that are created by, or at least involve, youth are most effective. They feel a greater commitment to the program's success, increase their self-esteem, and exert a positive influence on their peers. These are a few examples of programs that have captured the attention of urban youth:

• Rites of passage programs, for males and females separately, which provide information on staying healthy physically and emotionally.
  
  
• A rap video using multicultural models in situations that teach refusal skills.
  
  
• A "take back the community" project, where billboards with cigarette ads are whitewashed.
  
  
• Short plays, written in street language and performed where youth gather, which provide information about smoking and other dangers to adolescents.
  
  

Other successful anti-smoking projects include peer counseling, assemblies featuring speakers representing the same cultures as the young audience, booths at malls and fairs, and a contest for the best anti-smoking rock or rap song.

Some important limits on selling and marketing cigarettes to youth will be instituted nationally over the next few years. In the meantime, some of the same anti-smoking policies--and even some stronger ones--can be established locally. Parents, schools, and communities can work together to develop coordinated efforts to prevent youth smoking. Actions can include the following:

School

• Designate schools as smoke-free places, and prevent the nearby sale and use of cigarettes.
  
  
• Put an anti-tobacco message into many courses, not just health education: economics, life management skills, home economics, biology, etc.
  
  
• Create, publicize, and uniformly enforce clear rules regarding student substance use.
  
  
• Provide intensive staff training in anti-smoking education.
  
  

Community

• Develop an anti-tobacco advertising campaign for print, radio, and television media, and request free placement and air time. Use models and situations that appeal to youth and reflect their cultures.
  
  
• Incorporate anti-tobacco education into youth programs of all types.
  
  
• Incorporate anti-smoking strategies to use with their children into all types of programs for parents.
  
  
• Provide anti-smoking education along with other services in adolescent clinics.
  
  
• Provide addiction recovery services to adolescent and adult smokers.
  
  
• Prevent the sale of cigarettes to youth and display of tobacco promotions.
  
  
• Create a climate unfavorable to substance use and send the message that use is not widespread.
  
  
• Develop leaders and promote community bonding, cultural pride, and bicultural competence by youth.
  
  

Family

• Establish homes as smoke-free places. Refrain from smoking, if possible, or at least provide a strong anti-smoking education.
  
  
• Remind older children that they are role models for younger family members, and that many youth begin to smoke because their older siblings do. So, giving up cigarettes will not only improve their own lives, but the lives of their younger relatives.
  
  
• Provide children with good overall supervision and support.
  
  
• Take a parenting skills course to learn how to provide an anti-smoking and refusal skills education at home.
  
  

Anti-tobacco education that provides youth with information and support, and that continues over all the years of their growth, will help keep them from acquiring the smoking habit. At the same time, young people should be helped to deal with other problems that cause stress and depression: family neglect or abuse, school failure, unemployment, pregnancy and parenthood, and community crime and violence. These difficulties contribute to youth smoking as well as seriously lower the quality of the lives of young people in general.

Credits

Information in this guide was drawn from a digest published by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education: Smoking Prevention Strategies for Urban and Minority Youth.

ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education, Box 40, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, 801/601-4868, FAX: 212/678-4012, Internet: eric-cue@columbia.edu