StartSMART: Evaluation of a middle school tobacco prevention program

The 2006 Monitoring the Future Survey reported that the decrease in youth smoking rates slowed down and in some grades across the country have come to a complete standstill. Occurring at the same time is the decrease in funding for tobacco prevention and control programs as well as an increase in tobacco marketing efforts. Due to the fact that there is now an even greater need to improve tobacco awareness and prevention programs, the goal of this study was to develop and evaluate Students Making Advertisements to Reduce Tobacco (StartSMART), a comprehensive school-based tobacco prevention program. With the support of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the eight-session facilitator's curriculum and its components (including a student workbook, parent and school administrator's guides, the prevention program video, facilitator's training video, and support website) were created. This program incorporates CDC's seven Guidelines for School Health Programs to Prevent Tobacco Use and Addiction, utilizes a social marketing approach to deliver tobacco prevention education, and informs youth of the tobacco industry's tactics to target them to smoke. Middle school students observe, learn, and participate in delivering positive tobacco prevention messages as well as produce student developed anti-tobacco advertisements through the use of a video camera with in-camera editing. Final results from the process and outcome evaluations will be reported in this presentation as well as a demonstration of the website, student advertisements, curriculum, and program videos.