Tobacco addiction begins at an early age and often lasts a lifetime. In order to prevent the initiation of smoking by teens, programs must be implemented which result in long-term sustainable effects. Traditional approaches to tobacco use prevention among teens have focused on reducing risk taking behaviors. Youth development and empowerment (YD&E) represents a paradigm shift in prevention efforts. This concept is grounded in a philosophy that places value on all youth, not just those at risk, and emphasizes building their strengths and potential for development and resiliency. Empowerment is seen as one of the most effective strategies for providing young people with opportunities to develop competencies. This strategy for youth development, however, is widely discussed but measuring the degree of its effectiveness and generalizability is difficult given that empowerment programs are often population and content specific. The current study is a three-year project funded by the American Legacy Foundation to assess YD&E regarding tobacco use prevention. It consists of a summary of ongoing evaluation research to develop an effective YD&E program model for tobacco use prevention in South Carolina. The presentation will discuss the first year of this project, the development of a conceptual framework for evaluating youth empowerment and building YD&E program model guidelines for tobacco use prevention. Discussion will highlight the use of qualitative data collection methods to better understand current knowledge of YD&E and tobacco use prevention, empowering strategies of programs, and youth perceptions of empowering processes and outcomes.
Learning Objectives: Learning oobjective 1: At the conclusion of the session, participants will be able to list three indicators of youth development and empowerment processes and three indicators of youth development and empowerment outcomes. Learning objective 2: At the conclusion of the session, participants will be able to describe and evaluate the utility of qualitative research methodologies such as focus groups, in-depth interviews and expert panels for the purpose of exploratory research and conceptual framework development.
Keywords: Youth, Tobacco
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.