Health Education Research Advance Access originally published online on February 21, 2006
Health Education Research 2006 21(3):325-337; doi:10.1093/her/cyl001
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Using anti-tobacco industry messages to prevent smoking among high-risk adolescents
1 Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7440, USA
2 Institute for Health Research and Policy, 1747 West Roosevelt Road, Room 558 (MC 275), University of Illinois, Chicago, IL 60608, USA
3 Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
4 Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Chapel Hill Center, Chapel Hill, NC 27514-2812, USA
5 RTI, International, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA
*Correspondence to: J. F. Thrasher. E-mail: thrasher{at}uic.edu
Media campaigns to prevent adolescent tobacco use in the United States increasingly focus on the deceitful practices of the tobacco industry; however, little is known about how adolescents at elevated smoking risk respond to this strategy. This study used data from a nationally representative survey of 10 035 adolescents, ages 1217 years, in order to test whether reactions to anti-industry advertisements (ads), the attitudes these ads target, and the relationship between these attitudes and smoking differed by social bonding and sensation-seeking risk factors. Results indicated that anti-industry ad reactions and the strength of anti-industry attitudes were comparable between high- and low-sensation seeking adolescents, whereas weakly bonded adolescents had less favorable ad reactions and weaker anti-industry attitudes than strongly bonded adolescents. Social bonding also moderated the influence of sensation seeking on anti-industry ad reactions, such that sensation seeking had a positive influence among more strongly bonded adolescents and no influence among weakly bonded adolescents. Finally, the relationship between anti-industry attitudes and smoking appeared consistent across risk groups, whether risk was defined using social bonding, sensation seeking or the interaction between them. Overall, these results suggest that anti-industry messages are a promising strategy for preventing smoking among high- and low-risk adolescents alike.