An Examination of Youth Knowledge and Attitudes Toward Tobacco Policies in Schools

Objective: Implementation of tobacco-free policies in schools has increased from 46.3% in 2000 to 63.6% in 2006. However, a proportion of schools continue to not implement tobacco-free policies. Because youth spend a large proportion of time in schools during their lifetime and because tobacco use prevention is critical in this group, we sought to understand their general knowledge and attitudes about tobacco policies in schools.

Methods: Porter Novelli'sŪ Youthstyles is a nationally representative consumer mail-in survey of U.S. youth. In 2009 data on various issues about tobacco use and tobacco-free schools were collected from 1,310 children and adolescents (youth) aged 9 to 18 years. Youth were asked questions regarding knowledge about tobacco-free rules at their school and attitudes about them, as well as acceptability of smoking on school grounds.

Results: Preliminary data indicate that the vast majority of youth (90%) were knowledgeable about existing tobacco-free school rules. One in eight youths (12.8%) think that schools should allow students to smoke and 11.8% of youth think that schools should allow teachers to smoke. Additional analyses will include assessing youth attitudes about smoking at school-sponsored events and how social networks may influence these attitudes.

Conclusions: Our study provides preliminary examination of the knowledge and attitudes about tobacco-free policies in schools from the youth perspective. Implications for increasing changes in the social norms of tobacco use in schools will be discussed.