Attitudes toward anti-tobacco policy among California youth: associations with smoking status, psychosocial variables and advocacy actions.
To prevent smoking and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, California has implemented anti-tobacco policies, including laws restricting youth access to tobacco, and smoking bans in workplaces, schools, restaurants and bars. Although studies have examined adults' attitudes toward anti-tobacco policies, little is known about adolescents' awareness of and support for these policies. This study examined attitudes toward anti-tobacco policies in a sample of 6887 10th grade California adolescents. Awareness of anti-tobacco policies was highest among current smokers and lowest among susceptible never-smokers. Support for anti-tobacco policies was highest among non-susceptible never-smokers and lowest among current smokers. Policy awareness and support were significantly associated with psychosocial tobacco-related variables (e.g. perceived consequences of smoking, friends' smoking, perceived access to cigarettes, prevalence estimates of smoking among peers, cigarette offers and cigarette refusal self-efficacy). Policy awareness and support were associated with the probability of performing advocacy actions against tobacco use. Although these results cannot prove a causal association, they suggest that adolescents' attitudes toward anti-tobacco policies may play a role in their decisions about smoking. Tobacco control and education programs should include information about existing anti-tobacco policies, and should educate youth about the importance and benefits of anti-tobacco policies.
Unger
J B
JB
Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research, University of Southern California School of Medicine, 1540 Alcazar Street, CHP 207, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA.
Rohrbach
L A
LA
Howard
K A
KA
Boley Cruz
T
T
Johnson
C A
CA
Chen
X
X
D000293:Adolescent; D001290:Attitude; D002140:California; D005260:Female; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D012907:Smoking / Q000523:psychology; D000074606:Smoking Prevention