Our major objective is to reduce the initiation of regular cigarette smoking in young people through mass media and school-based supports for maintaining a non-smoking status. We hypothesize that a program to modify perceptions and attitudes and convey cigarette refusal skills through a series of television and radio messages will provide a significant complement to a school-based prevention program. On the basis of our previous mass media research in smoking prevention and extensive diagnostic and formative research, we will design a set of three distinctly different anti-smoking media campaigns, each aimed at young people in one of three developmental levels: before, during, and after puberty. These levels correspond roughly to grades 5-6, 7-8, and 9-l0. Message designs for each campaign will be developed independently by media consultants on the basis of diagnostic and formative research. With guaranteed exposure through paid advertising, each campaign will be scheduled to reach youngsters at the proper developmental level at times when these target groups are using the media. Four matching Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas have been identified as study communities: Bangor, ME; Burlington, VT; Great Falls, MT; and Billings, MT. School systems matched between communities will be asked to participate in a school program currently being tested in Vermont, while also providing cooperation in the collection of survey data. In all of these communities, a fifth to seventh grade cohort of 5,000 young people will be provided with the smoking prevention program each school year through grades eight to ten. Great Falls and Bangor will also receive the mass media intervention. Annual formative and summative surveys will be conducted. Our data collection techniques will allow us to describe individual patterns in changes in behavior, perceptions, and attitudes. In addition to self-report questionnaires, young people will provide saliva samples, a subset of which will be analyzed for thiocyanate content. This project will draw on our expertise in public and school health education, communication, psychology, biostatistics, and medicine.
