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The tobacco industry remains a formidable influence in thwarting tobacco control efforts, in pan because industry leaders have raised policymaker and public concern about how tobacco control might negatively impact tobacco farmers. In this study, we interviewed a random, stratified sample of 528 tobacco farmers in the Southeast and 991 U.S. residents about issues related to tobacco farmers. We found that a majority of the U.S. public expressed the belief that U.S. taxpayers subsidized tobacco farmers. This belief combined with the strong opposition to tobacco farmer subsidies (15 percent thought there should be subsidies), likely play a role in public attitudes toward tobacco farmers. At the same time, however, we found reasonably strong public support for efforts to help tobacco farmers transition to new enterprises, although the public underestimates tobacco farmer interest in diversification. For example, two of three Americans believe that the government should help farmers make a living other than growing tobacco and over half thought that taxpayers should help pay for such programs. These data illustrate potential common ground for elected officials to consider as they attempt to concomitantly address the needs of farmers and the interests of the public. Ultimately, if the interests of tobacco farmers can be made clearly to the general public, and vice versa, pro- health and pro -farmer policies might well become a reality [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the developmental correlation of tobacco and alcohol use among elementary school children in the United States. Applied to the present study, the socialization model posits an inverse association between competence and the risk of early use of tobacco and alcohol. Although competence has been widely studied, and has been linked to risk behaviors among adolescents, the relation between competence and early substance use by children requires investigation. The researchers examine the association between competence and early use of tobacco and alcohol. The researchers hypothesize inverse associations between measures of children's personal, social, and academic competence and their risk of early use of alcohol and tobacco. The results of the study indicate that use of tobacco and alcohol during childhood has a strong inverse association with several measures of child competence, both self-reported and teacher rated. Early use was also inversely associated with perceived effective parenting and positively associated with parental modeling of use.