Middle school students' perceived access to cigarettes in Virginia.
OBJECTIVE
To examine correlates of perceived access to cigarettes at home, school, and the store among youth.


METHODS
Virginia middle school youth were surveyed before beginning tobacco prevention programs. Multivariate analyses examined household smoking, peer smoking, and perceived community tobacco use for their relationship to perceived access at home, school, and the store.


RESULTS
Perceived access at home was associated with parent, sibling, and friend smoking. Perceived access at school and stores was associated with perceived peer and community smoking.


CONCLUSIONS
Youth tobacco prevention programs should target the commercial and social sources of tobacco access to reduce experimentation, adoption, and addiction among youth.
Speizer
Ilene S
IS
University of North Carolina, Department of Maternal and Child Health, Rosenau Hall, CB# 7445, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7445, USA. Ilene_speizer@unc.edu
Bean
Melanie K
MK
Obando
C Patricia
CP
Fries
Elizabeth
E
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D003132:Commerce; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014768:Virginia / Q000453:epidemiology; D014026:Nicotiana