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Cancer Control Research

Abstract

DESCRIPTION: (Applicant's Description) The rate of tobacco use is increasing among adolescents, despite the high level of resources and attention applied to the prevention of tobacco use among them. Commercial sources of tobacco for youth are addressed by a growing number of initiatives on the federal, state, and local level, and Minnesota has been a leader at the state and local level in this area. The social availability of tobacco to youth, including social sources of tobacco, will be a major issue for tobacco control in the next century, after commercial availability is substantially addressed. The purpose of this study is to test a community-based intervention to reduce the social availability of tobacco to youth. This intervention will be tested only in communities where commercial access is already meaningfully restricted. This study will test the application of direct action community organizing to changing elements of the social environment of adolescents concerning tobacco: reduce social provision of tobacco to youth, adopt and enforce smoke-free policies where youth spend time, and encourage parents and other adults to take a strong stand against tobacco use. Community organizing has been shown in previous studies to be an appropriate and effective strategy for reducing adolescent tobacco use. The specific aims of the study are to implement a community organizing intervention aimed at changing the social environment concerning adolescent tobacco use in 7 communities; to encourage families, institutions and communities to adopt policies and practices to reduce social sources of tobacco and provide a tobacco free environment for youth; and to involve adolescents in advocacy and peer leadership to reduce social provision of tobacco. Students and parents will be surveyed in each of the 7 intervention and 7 control communities at baseline and after intervention. Outcomes will be determined by comparing smoking rates among youth; tobacco acquisition patterns for youth; policies and practices concerning tobacco use in family, community, and institutional settings; and norms concerning adult and youth tobacco use.