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Context: There are many scientific articles and studies, both at national and international level, analyzing the adolescents smoking behavior and its influencing factors. One could find much information from these studies about the adolescents smoking habits and about different prevention methods. The present article originality - at least in Romanian context - consists in two new dimensions: one is to analyse not only the smoking behavior of the adolescents, but also their exposure to second hand smoking (SHS). The other dimension is related to the proposed intervention method to reduce the prevalence of smoking (and also SHS): utilizing the community intervention method. Methodology: Three counties of Transylvania were chosen in order to shape a representative sample of 14-15 aged adolescents (in VII and VIII grade), including parameters such as the size of the settlement, type of school, location of school inside the settlement, language of education etc. For data collection a questionnaire was applied (in Romanian or Hungarian, according to the nationality of the respondents). Results: The results show that there is a high second hand smoke exposure of the adolescents in different spaces of the community where they live. Moreover the exposure of home SHS is related with lower age at first try, higher probability of tobacco usage, higher probability of smoking friends etc. Therefore we think that only a community-level intervention would produce the most efficient results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the theoretical concept of "possible selves", an anti-smoking educational game was created in which players could see negative changes to the appearance of their future selves as a consequence of smoking. We used a 2 (change in the future vs. no future change) x 2 (self avatar vs. unfamiliar avatar) between-subjects design for the experiment. Overall, the game successfully changed perceived risk, attitudes, knowledge and intention to quit smoking. Further, participants who viewed deteriorated (aged and w rinkled) images of themselves in the future, compared to who did not, showed higher efficacy, more negative attitudes toward social smoking, and greater intention to quit smokin g. The implications of using avatars as visualized possible selves in health promotion are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many smoking college students hold ambivalent attitudes toward smoking. Although ambivalence is widely believed to evoke negative affect, research has yet to examine how ambivalence may influence emotional responses to persuasive information. Participants in this study (N = 133 college smokers) completed a survey which included a presentation of novel and credible anti-smoking information. Structural equation modeling analyses showed that pre-exposure ambivalence was positively associated with post-exposure negative emotions. Negative emotions, in turn, were associated with greater perceived message effectiveness. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovative tobacco marketing strategies have raised significant concerns about the ease with which such messages may appeal to certain disproportionately targeted audiences like Blacks. This study examined whether Kool's cigarette packaging featuring hip-hop cultural images are as effective as more traditional cigarette packages in positively influencing smoking-related attitudes among both White and Black audiences. An experiment was conducted on 260 Black and White participants who were exposed to either a traditional Kool cigarette package or a non-traditional hip-hop cigarette package featuring a Black or a White character. Ethnic identity was also measured to determine whether strength of ethnic identity could be a defense against tobacco marketing. Results showed Blacks and Whites responded more favorably to hip-hop cigarette packages featuring Black characters than they did cigarette packages featuring White characters. It was also found that Blacks with strong ethnic identity had less favorable attitudes toward the cigarette packages, less favorable attitudes toward smoking, and were less likely to intend to smoke than Blacks with weak ethnic identities. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a special case of hierarchical data, count data with excess zerosare widely observed in social science. In this paper we take theadvantage of the flexibility of the Bayesian analysis to modelhierarchical data. We apply Bayesian methods to model zero-inflatedcount data. We first discuss why modeling count data with excesszeros is important for social scientists. Then we review thedistribution of zero-inflated count data with special attention given toits hierarchical data structure in a Bayesian modeling context. Weillustrate this method in a practical example in a study of smoking behavior.Posterior predictive checks reveal that the Bayesian model for thespecific example of zero-inflated count data fits the data fairlywell. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examined the influence of mass media and interpersonal communication about smoking on adolescents. The study focused on the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of pre-teems and teens aged 11-15. A unique feature of the study was the paired sample of adolescents and their parents or guardians. The results showed that adolescent respondents’ attention to smoking information in the media was positively associated with the level of discussion about tobacco use in their family. Meanwhile, attention to information in the media was found to serve as a stronger predictor of adolescents’ perceptions, attitudes and behaviors about smoking and tobacco use than communication with their parents or guardians. In particular, the results suggested that television was a powerful channel for delivering antismoking messages to youth. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]