Using anti-tobacco industry messages to prevent smoking among high-risk adolescents.
Media campaigns to prevent adolescent tobacco use in the United States increasingly focus on the deceitful practices of the tobacco industry; however, little is known about how adolescents at elevated smoking risk respond to this strategy. This study used data from a nationally representative survey of 10,035 adolescents, ages 12-17 years, in order to test whether reactions to anti-industry advertisements (ads), the attitudes these ads target, and the relationship between these attitudes and smoking differed by social bonding and sensation-seeking risk factors. Results indicated that anti-industry ad reactions and the strength of anti-industry attitudes were comparable between high- and low-sensation seeking adolescents, whereas weakly bonded adolescents had less favorable ad reactions and weaker anti-industry attitudes than strongly bonded adolescents. Social bonding also moderated the influence of sensation seeking on anti-industry ad reactions, such that sensation seeking had a positive influence among more strongly bonded adolescents and no influence among weakly bonded adolescents. Finally, the relationship between anti-industry attitudes and smoking appeared consistent across risk groups, whether risk was defined using social bonding, sensation seeking or the interaction between them. Overall, these results suggest that anti-industry messages are a promising strategy for preventing smoking among high- and low-risk adolescents alike.
Department of Health Behavior.ealth Education, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7440, USA. thrasher@uic.edu
James F
JF
Thrasher
Jeffrey D
JD
Niederdeppe
Christine
C
Jackson
Matthew C
MC
Farrelly
D000293:Adolescent; D000329:Advertising; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008402:Mass Media; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D019460:Tobacco Industry; D014481:United States