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Action on Smoking and Health
A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions
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Rural Teens More Likely to Smoke [08/01-2]
Excerpts from: RURAL KIDS NEED MESSAGE THAT SMOKING ISN’T SO POPULAR
By Aaron Levin Health
Behavior News Service [07/31/03]
Rural teenagers smoke more than their city cousins, but a new survey of Iowa
seventh-graders suggests that keeping small-town and farm kids from first lighting
up may hinge on teaching parents to send anti-smoking messages to their kids.
"Smoking prevention programs for rural adolescents would teach kids that
smoking is not the norm, how to refuse tobacco and other drugs, improve parents'
skills and enhance decision-making skills and independent thinking," according
to lead author Jennifer A. Epstein, Ph.D., of Cornell University's Weill Medical
College in New York.
Since most smoking research has focused on city or suburban teenagers, Epstein
and her colleagues chose to concentrate on rural youth. They surveyed 1,673
seventh-graders in 22 northeastern Iowa counties, in school districts with enrollments
under 1,200 students that had only one middle school.
They found that both current and future smoking were more likely if a student
believed most adults and peers smoked, Epstein says. Such an environment creates
the impression that smoking is attractive or harmless, and that "everyone
does it."
Although most parents might swear their teenagers never listen to them, research
has shown that smoking can be deterred when parents point out the health risks
of tobacco, state their opposition to smoking, and articulate their support
for their children's choice not to smoke, she says.
In summary, says Epstein, her research indicates how rural families, health
professionals, and schools might start reducing the smoking rates among rural
teenagers.
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