Effects of Graphic Warning Labels on Adolescent Smoking

描述(由申请人提供)：拟议研究的总体目标是评估和了解国家烟草控制的影响 政策。具体地说，拟议的研究将评估心理社会和 新图形香烟包装警告标签的行为效果 于2000年12月在加拿大推出。这些标签包含生动的 吸烟对健康的负面影响的照片，附文字 包内的消息，其中包括降低 包裹上描述的威胁。在准实验设计中， 参与者将是加拿大9所高中的12,000名学生和 美国有6所高中。美国的学校是匹配的 所以他们和加拿大的学校很相似。基线数据证实 加拿大和美国的学校在吸烟行为上没有区别。学生们将 参加一项30分钟的课堂调查，每年2次，每次3次 学年数。第一波数据收集是在 引入新的警告标签。具体目标有六个：(一) 检查图形警告标签是否对吸烟有影响 行为；(2)检查图形警告标签是否增强 与标签相关的心理社会变量(例如，标签显著度)；(3)检查 图形警告标签是否会减少一般的心理社会变量 都与吸烟行为有关；(4)研究 图形警告标签将随暴露于标签而有所不同；(5) 检查图形警告标签的效果是否会随 感觉寻求、时间等个体差异变量的作用 透视；以及(6)检查图形警告的效果 吸烟行为的标签是由已确定的变量中介的 从理论上讲，这对预测和理解吸烟行为很重要。 将使用数据分析方法，以考虑到集群 数据的性质(例如，随机效应回归模型)。建议数 研究利用了一种重要的烟草的“自然实验” 控制策略，因此有可能深入了解 各国政府减少烟草使用的这些努力和其他努力的有效性， 并可为未来的烟草控制政策提供经验基础。 美国和其他国家。此外，同时注重政策评估 理论测试可能会对潜在的机制产生洞察力， 解释政策如何以及为什么达到预期效果(或失败的原因 以达到其预期的效果)。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The broad objective of the proposed research is to evaluate and understand the impact of a national tobacco control policy. Specifically, the proposed research will evaluate the psychosocial and behavioral effects of the new graphic cigarette package warning labels that were introduced in Canada in December 2000. These labels contain vivid photographs of the negative health consequences of cigarette smoking, with text messages inside the package that include efficacy messages for reducing the threat depicted on the package. In a quasi-experimental design, the participants will be a total of 12,000 students at 9 high schools in Canada and 6 high schools in the United States. Schools in the United States are matched so that they are similar to the Canadian schools. Baseline data confirm that the Canadian and U.S. schools do not differ in smoking behavior. Students will participate in a 30-minute classroom administered survey 2 times a year for 3 academic years. The first wave of data collection was conducted prior to the introduction of the new warning labels. There are six specific aims: (1) to examine whether the graphic warning labels have any effects on smoking behavior; (2) to examine whether the graphic warning labels enhance label-relevant psychosocial variables (e.g., label salience); (3) to examine whether the graphic warning labels diminish general psychosocial variables that are related to smoking behavior; (4) to examine whether the effects of the graphic warning labels will vary as a function of exposure to the labels; (5) to examine whether the effects of the graphic warning labels will vary as a function of individual difference variables such as sensation seeking and time perspective; and (6) to examine whether the effects of the graphic warning labels on smoking behavior are mediated by variables that have been identified by theory to be important in predicting and understanding smoking behavior. Data-analytic methods will be employed that take into account the clustered nature of the data (e.g., random-effects regression models). The proposed research takes advantage of a "natural experiment" in an important tobacco control policy, and thus has the potential to gain insight into the effectiveness of these and other efforts by governments to reduce tobacco use, and could provide an empirical basis for future tobacco control policies in the U.S. and other countries. Moreover, the simultaneous focus on policy evaluation and theory testing may yield insights into the underlying mechanisms that would explain how and why the policy achieved its desired effects (or why it failed to achieve its desired effects).