Abstract
Background: This study aimed at exploring the impacts of a school-wide no smoking strategy and a classroom-based smoking prevention curriculum on smoking-related knowledge, attitude, behavior, and skill of junior high school students. Methods: Using a pre-post quasi-experimental design, 469 seventh-to ninth-grade students at four junior high schools in Taiwan, were selected and separated into three groups according to class unit. Experimental group A experienced a school-wide no smoking strategy and a six-session smoking prevention curriculum. Experimental group B experienced only the school-wide no smoking strategy. The control group experienced no intervention. The students were tested 1 week before intervention began and 1 week after it ended. Results: Experimental group A exhibited a better understanding than either experimental group B or the control group of the dangers of smoking and of techniques for refusing cigarettes; and in fact, group A indicated low smoking intention than experimental group B. Experimental group A also had a better attitudes towards resisting smoking than the control group. However, the intervention had no demonstrable effect on the smoking behavior and on the smoking substitution methods of students. Conclusions: To reduce the smoking rates among junior high school students, diversified school-wide no smoking strategies and standardized, diversified instruments should be adopted so that outcomes of smoking prevention work may be assessed more objectively and effectively.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 2099-2107 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Addictive Behaviors |
Volume | 32 |
Issue number | 10 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Oct 2007 |
Keywords
- Classroom-based smoking prevention curriculum
- Junior high school
- School-wide no smoking strategies
- Smoking behavior
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Medicine (miscellaneous)
- Clinical Psychology
- Toxicology
- Psychiatry and Mental health