title: Faith-based leaders' opinions before and after a youth tobacco prevention workshop.
abstract: To determine if religious leaders' (N = 253) opinions changed after a 1-day workshop on integrating a "Students Working Against Tobacco" educational program into Sunday school or other youth programs at church, participants, most of whom were African-American, completed a pretest and posttest survey. Leaders' opinions regarding their expertise in this area reflected more confidence following the workshop. Both before and after the workshop, they were firm in their belief that tobacco prevention programs have an impact and that tobacco use could be prevented. Surprisingly, their belief that tobacco use is a morality issue changed from neutral to mild agreement. Given the responsiveness of participants, faith-based leaders are promising vehicles for delivering tobacco use prevention messages.
authors.affiliation: Center for Tobacco Prevention and Health Promotion Department at The University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi 39406, USA.
authors.forename: Bonita
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Reinert
authors.forename: Vivien
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Carver
authors.forename: Lillian M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Range
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Campbell
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006266:Health Education; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D008297:Male; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D012907:Smoking / Q000208:ethnology; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000208:ethnology / Q000379:methods*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000517:prevention & control; D014481:United States