Tobacco.org

Influential School Students Can Help Lower Peers' Smoking Rates 

Reduction of smoking rates among teenagers can be achieved by training more influential students in secondary schools to promote anti-smoking messages in everyday conversations with their friends and peers, according to an article released on May 9, 2008 in The Lancet.

A young person's smoking habits are strongly associated with the behaviors their friends perform and usually, this is attributed to peer pressure. However, evidence suggests that peer selection, in which young people tend to choose to associate with like-minded people who engage in similar behaviors to themselves, is also a cause. Peer influence itself is not solely destructive, and can be protective, leading to efforts to harness its positive effects through peer education.

To this end, Professor Rona Campbell, University of Bristol, UK, and Professor Laurence Moore, Cardiff University, UK, and colleagues performed A Stop Smoking in Schools Trial (ASSIST).

Jump to full article »