Cigarette Smoking Among Youth: A Regional Health Problem

Abstract

Cigarette smoking among young people is a major public health concern. Coordinated strategies that address tobacco availability, smoking policy enforcement, and smoking norms can help protect Israeli and Palestinian youth and their communities from the harms of smoking. From this initiative, the project organizers found that a brief intervention implemented by school/community coalitions has potential to reduce students' scores on an index of related consequences of adolescent smoking. The index included items such as attitudes and behavior. Benefits of the brief intervention tend to be school and community-wide affecting not only the smokers themselves but also those around them. This project contributed to a growing body of evidence suggesting that strategic changes to the environment (e.g., school and surrounding community) can have a positive impact on attitudes and behavior among high risk youth. Using what is known as a school-community-organizing approach, coalitions comprised of school and community agency administrators, teachers, youth workers, youth, and community leaders may want to consider this brief intervention for possible adaptation and application. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)