1. Do tobacco countermarketing campaigns increase adolescent under-reporting of smoking?
- Author
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Messeri, Peter A., Allen, Jane A., Mowery, Paul D., Healton, Cheryl G., Haviland, M. Lyndon, Gable, Julia M., and Pedrazzani, Susan D.
- Subjects
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TOBACCO , *SMOKING , *TEENAGERS , *SOCIAL context - Abstract
Abstract: This study assesses whether a national anti-tobacco campaign for youth could create a social context that would elevate social desirability response bias on surveys, as measured by an increase in under-reporting of smoking. This could give rise to data that falsely suggest a campaign-induced decline in youth smoking, or it could exaggerate campaign effects. Data were obtained from a national sample of 5511 students from 48 high schools that were matched to schools sampled for the 2002 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS). Self-reported smoking was compared with biochemical indicators of smoking, measured using saliva cotinine. The rate of under-reporting detected was 1.3%. Level of truth® exposure was not related to under-reporting. This study suggests that for high school students, anti-tobacco campaigns are not an important cause of social desirability responses on surveys, and that in general under-reporting smoking is not a major source of error in school-based surveys. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]
- Published
- 2007
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