THE PERSISTENCE OF INOCULATION IN CONFERRING RESISTANCE TO SMOKING INITIATION AMONG ADOLESCENTS - THE 2ND YEAR

The authors previously reported the results of an investigation into t he potential of inoculation to promote resistance to smoking onset in young adolescents. Inoculation videos were administered to 1,047 adole scents in a midwestern city. Results for the first year indicated that inoculation promotes resistance to smoking initiation but only among adolescents of low self-esteem. This report follows up the first-year results in an effort to assess the permanence of the initial effects. The results during the second year revealed main effects for inoculati on on attitudes, suggesting modest persistence for the initial pretrea tments, and a weak interaction effect in the fall, which dissipated by spring. In addition, the pattern of results suggests that if resistan ce approaches are to have a chance of success in smoking prevention th ey must target young adolescents at the point of transition from prima ry (elementary) to secondary (middle or junior high) school. Beyond th is pivotal juncture, adolescents' attitudes opposing smoking quickly d eteriorate, therefore rendering the resistance paradigm inappropriate.