“Smoking prevention programs for rural adolescents would teach kids
that smoking is not the norm, how to refuse tobacco and other drugs, improve
parents’ skills and enhance decision-making skills and independent
thinking,” according to lead author Jennifer A. Epstein, Ph.D., of
Cornell University’s Weill Medical College in New York.
Epstein’s study results appear in the July issue of Nicotine & Tobacco
Research.
National surveys had shown that rural kids in eighth, 10th and 12th grades
smoked more cigarettes each day than students in big cities. In fact, 7.2
percent of non-urban eighth-graders smoke, compared to 4.1 percent of urban
kids.
Since most smoking research has focused on city or suburban teenagers,
Epstein and her colleagues chose to concentrate on rural youth. They surveyed
1,673 seventh-graders in 22 northeastern Iowa counties, in school districts
with enrollments under 1,200 students that had only one middle school.
They found that both current and future smoking were more
likely if a student believed most adults and peers smoked, Epstein says.
Such an
environment creates the impression that smoking is attractive or harmless,
and that “everyone
does it.”
“One way to correct adolescents’ overestimation of the prevalence
of smoking is to provide them with accurate information about smoking rates,
especially when smoking is considered acceptable,” Epstein says.
Also, those with an affinity for taking risks were more likely to smoke
in the future, a finding that was especially true for girls.
Also for girls who received better parental monitoring —like knowing
the child’s whereabouts — were less likely to produce smokers,
meaning that anti-smoking programs involving parents may be helpful,
Epstein says.
Although most parents might swear their teenagers never
listen to them, research has shown that smoking can be deterred when
parents point out
the health risks of tobacco, state their opposition to smoking, and articulate
their support for their children’s choice not to smoke, she says.
In summary, says Epstein, her research indicates how rural families, health
professionals, and schools might start reducing the smoking rates among
rural teenagers.
“Anti-smoking interventions directed at rural youth could provide
accurate information about smoking rates, train adolescents in refusal
and generic skills, and include a parenting skills training component,” she
says.
This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute on
Drug Abuse.
