This developmental research project investigates the availability and use of social resources as communicators and reinforcers of smoking-related cultural normal and values among Hispanic youth at risk for smoking. Social resources include: social networks of adult family members and familial peers, the integration into those networks and the perceived support from these to experiment with tobacco products. Social resources are particularly important among Hispanics because they exercise an influence in deterring or promoting youth smoking. The study of these factors is particularly important for understanding some of the social sources of tobacco as well as cultural reasons behind the increases in Hispanic youth prevalence. This project will be conducted in three phases. Phase I will consist of eight focus groups (8) with 8-12 adolescent Hispanic smokers and non-smokers, ages 12-15. Sixty four to ninety six (64-96) U.S. born and foreign-born Hispanic youth from Central American (Nicaragua, El Salvador) and Mexico will be recruited through schools we are currently working with in the greater Los Angeles area. youth will discuss in Spanish, English or both, smoking-related cultural factors and the functional value of social resources in influencing youth smoking. Phase II consists of performing content and thematic analyses of focus group data and the development of a scale, the Hispanic Youth Cultural Protection Against Smoking Survey (HYCPASS) that assesses the existence and functional value of culturally-based protective factors and social resources in preventing Hispanic adolescents from engaging in smoking. Based on focus group data, items will also be developed for the Multiethnic Cultural Values Scale proposed in another TTURC project. The HYCPASS will be transplanted using an anthropological method called """"""""decentering"""""""", by which the survey is translated and back translated favoring the agreement in cultural meaning and context rather than language equivalency, and the proper use of youth-based Spanish idiomatic expressions easily understood by Mexican and Central American adolescents. They survey will be pre-tested in a sample of 16 adolescents to ensure cultural significance and concordance with the theoretical framework. In Phase III, the survey will be administered to a sample of 40 Hispanic youth smokers and non-smokers to assess their endorsement of those social resources, norms and values that protect youth from smoking. Within group analyses will be made focusing on levels of acculturation, age, gender, number of years in the U.S., and national origin. Findings will form the basis for the submission of large scale studies and will be disseminated for program planning purposes through the Hispanic/Latino Tobacco Education Network, a California- based network of over 700 researchers, providers and tobacco control advocates housed at USC.
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