) Tobacco control among adolescents is on the increase. Innovative approaches and new intervention channels are needed to boost the effectiveness of tobacco use prevention and cessation efforts with youth. This Phase II methods development study stands apart from other tobacco control initiatives for youth by targeting employed adolescents. Employed youth are likely to represent those teens most at risk to use tobacco, including those of lower socioeconomic status, lower academic achievement, and who have dropped out of school. This methods development study applies state-of-the-art intervention methods from worksite-based cancer control efforts with adults in combination with successful elements of adolescent tobacco control interventions. In this study, tobacco use includes both smoking as well as the use of smokeless tobacco. Our primary focus is on cessation, since youth old enough to work are likely to have already started to use tobacco. Effective cessation programs are needed for adolescents who smoke. We also focus secondarily on prevention, since as adolescents begin employment, they are exposed to new influences and job, and have increased disposable income for purchasing tobacco -- factors that may contribute to increased up-take of tobacco use. This worksite-based intervention will be developed for use in shopping malls, which include work sites most likely to employ adolescents. The intervention and evaluation methods will be developed in close collaboration with employed youth and the representatives of work sites that employ them. In this way, the intervention will be designed in response to peer group cultures and norms.
The specific aims of this study are to: (1) Assess tobacco use and factors influencing tobacco use among employed adolescents, aged 14-17, following a social ecological model. (2) Develop effective tobacco control intervention methods for use in worksite settings with employed youth. Effective methods are defined as those which lead to: a) worksite participation in and support for the program; b) the extent to which it is possible to deliver the intervention as planned; and c) the level of adolescent exposure to and participation in the intervention. (3) Develop effective methods for evaluating the efficacy of identification and tracking of youth through worksite settings; b) high response rates to assessments of tobacco use; c) complete assessment of exposure to the intervention. (4) Estimate the effect size of a worksite-based tobacco use cessation and prevention intervention for youth employed in one component of the workforce - shopping malls. This methods development study is designed to provide the basis for a randomized, controlled intervention trial to determine the efficacy of worksite-based interventions as a means of reducing tobacco use among employed adolescents. The proposed research -- if disseminated and adopted on a large scale - could have a significant effect on the reduction of smoking by adolescents in the U.S.
| Stoddard, Anne M; Fagan, Pebbles; Sorensen, Glorian et al. (2005) Reducing cigarette smoking among working adolescents: results from the SMART study. Cancer Causes Control 16:1159-64 |
| Sorensen, Glorian; Fagan, Pebbles; Hunt, Mary Kay et al. (2004) Changing channels for tobacco control with youth: developing an intervention for working teens. Health Educ Res 19:250-60 |
| Fagan, P; Stoddard, A M; Hunt, M K et al. (2003) The feasibility of evaluating a tobacco control intervention for working youth. Tob Control 12 Suppl 4:IV34-9 |
| Hunt, M K; Fagan, P; Lederman, R et al. (2003) Feasibility of implementing intervention methods in an adolescent worksite tobacco control study. Tob Control 12 Suppl 4:IV40-5 |
| Fagan, Pebbles; Eisenberg, Marla; Frazier, Lindsay et al. (2003) Employed adolescents and beliefs about self-efficacy to avoid smoking. Addict Behav 28:613-26 |
| Fagan, P; Eisenberg, M; Stoddard, A M et al. (2001) Social influences, social norms, social support, and smoking behavior among adolescent workers. Am J Health Promot 15:414-21 |
