Tobacco use & intent predictability in early childhood

Many youth tobacco use prevention programs target adolescents as the population served. Younger children are essentially ignored for targeted interventions. As part of a study to determine if children as early as 8 years old could be properly screened for both their intention to use, as well as their actual tobacco use, a screening tool was developed that successfully identified current tobacco use intent, as well as actual tobacco use in children as young as 8-12 years of age. Through the use of multinomial logistic regression, models were developed to predict future tobacco use intent & actual use in this younger age group of children. Some of the predictor variables for the intention to use tobacco model were: Ethnicity [African-American, p = .002; Asian-American, p = .004]; perception of smoking risk [response of “No, not bad,” p = .000]; risk of smoking cigarettes [“Low risk” response, p = .009]; child's own tobacco use [any use, p = .000]; and perception of safety within the community [response of “No, never,” p = .000]. For the actual tobacco use model, the following predictors were found: Ethnicity [African-American, p = .002]; tobacco use intent, p = .000; risk of smoking cigarettes [“Low risk” response, p = .013]; and, perception of safety at school [response of “No, never,” p = .009]. Implications of study results for future development and improvement of early childhood prevention programs will be discussed, as well as indications for future research in the area of early childhood prevention.