ADOLESCENTS PROMOTION OF NONSMOKING AND SMOKING

Previous studies of the influence of friends on adolescent smoking hav e adopted the approach of asking adolescents about their friends. Howe ver, studies in which the friends were also approached have shown that adolescents' reports of friends behavior were not accurate (more clos ely resembled their own behavior). In order to gauge the level of acti ve social influence among adolescents we asked 14-15 year old students what they did to influence others not to smoke or to smoke. Across tw o surveys, a quarter of the Form 4 students were promoting antismoking messages or activities and 3% were promoting smoking by encouraging o r forcing friends, siblings and acquaintances to smoke. Relatively mor e positive beliefs about smoking identified those students who activel y promoted smoking whereas some positive beliefs about the adverse eff ects of cigarette advertising tended to identify those who were active ly antismoking. Use of this approach to examine the issue of social in fluence provided information about the antismoking activities which st udents conducted, and could be used to further examine which messages students do not believe or do not use. For example, students believed that smoking reduces fitness but did not promote this message to other s, and the reasons for such disparity need to be investigated and shou ld be addressed in the content of prevention programs.