“Peer-helping programs capitalize on natural channels of influence
and are a relatively low-cost path to prevention,” says lead study
author John Sciacca, M.P.H., Ph.D., professor of health promotion at
Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.
The study appeared in the September/October issue of the American
Journal of Health Education.
In addition to peer pressure, other factors can lead young people to smoke,
the researchers note. Parents play a role, too.
“Nevertheless,” Sciacca says, “peer influence is one
of the important influences on a youth’s decision to use tobacco.” He
adds that tobacco use usually begins at an early age and kids frequently
turn to other kids for information.
“Unstructured, informal peer influence and education are taking
place on a daily basis,” Sciacca says. “Much of it likely
results in misinformation or even harmful advice.”
To learn what happens when peer influence is channeled into fending off
tobacco use, Sciacca and colleagues from the University of Arizona and
Arizona State University organized the project using a program called Champs
Have and Model Positive Peer Skills (CHAMPS).
“CHAMPS is a leadership model to train and empower students to become
a positive force in preventing tobacco use,” Sciacca explains.
Only 19 of the original schools implemented the program
in the 1998-1999 school year as planned. But the other six schools agreed
to let students
answer the same questionnaire used in the CHAMPS program. These schools
thus provided a comparison group against which to measure program results.
The CHAMPS program wasn’t the sole approach to tobacco control
in the state. Other tobacco prevention strategies were in effect in Arizona
at the time, including a statewide mass media campaign.
School principals, teachers, parents, counselors, nurses and community
representatives trained as CHAMPS leaders. They then selected student peer
helpers.
“Ideal candidates were those to whom other students listened and
who exhibited strong leadership skills,” Sciacca says.
Teams of eight to 12 student leaders then organized specific activities
to encourage tobacco prevention. They used everything from classroom lessons
to skits and crossword puzzles in their efforts to focus on tobacco advertising
and what tobacco can do to the body.
After 1,412 students completed surveys at the beginning and end of the
school year, Sciacca and colleagues found that students who had been through
the CHAMPS program were significantly less likely to have smoked. The change
in smoking rates among the comparison group students was not significant,
Sciacca says. The CHAMPS students also correctly answered more questions
about the harmful effects of tobacco use.
Over the same time, the percentage of students in the comparison schools
who said they would smoke a cigarette if one of their best friends offered
it increased significantly from 0.6 percent to 4.6 percent, but that figure
increased only slightly (1.3 percent to 2.0 percent) in the 19 CHAMPS schools.
“The CHAMPS intervention — as an important component of a
school-based tobacco prevention program — appears to have helped
students to decide not to smoke as well as to have provided students with
the perceived abilities to refuse cigarettes offered by a close friend,” Sciacca
says. “Efforts to increase students’ perceived ability to
resist peer pressure to smoke may be important in reducing smoking among
youths.”
