The Environmental Context of Smoking: Measuring Social Capital in College

描述（由申请人提供）：大学生有开始吸烟的风险，目前偶尔吸烟者有发展为重度或每日吸烟的风险。环境对吸烟的开始和维持有影响，但个人吸烟行为与大学环境之间的相互作用在很大程度上是未知的。本项目的目的是确定导致学生吸烟行为的吸收和维持的大学环境因素，使用社会资本理论来了解学生如何参与校园环境。目前，研究人员还没有工具来衡量社会资本对大学校园健康行为的影响。这个项目的主要目标是开发一种工具来衡量大学生的社会资本，然后可以用来评估社会资本和大学生健康行为之间的关系，特别是香烟的使用。本研究的目的是：1)探索大学生社会资本建构及其相关概念的定性意义；2)开发一种测量大学生社会资本多维度的工具；3)检验社会资本与大学生吸烟的关系。我们期望大学生社会资本工具的开发将有助于增加对校园环境和个体特征之间的相互关系的理解，因为它们与大学生吸烟行为有关。这种认识可以为社区一级的预防和戒烟干预提供信息，以取得更好和更有效的结果。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): College students are at risk for cigarette smoking initiation and current occasional smokers are at risk of progression to heavy or daily smoking. The environment is recognized to have an influence on smoking initiation and maintenance, but the interaction between individual smoking behaviors and the college environment is largely unknown. The purpose of this project is to identify elements of the college environment that lead to the uptake and maintenance of smoking behaviors in students using social capital theory to understand how students engage in their campus environment. Currently, there are no instruments available for researchers to measure the impact of social capital on health behaviors that is unique to college campuses. The primary goal of this project is to develop an instrument to measure social capital in college students which can then be used to assess the relationship between social capital and health behaviors in college students, specifically, cigarette use. The AIMS of the study 1) to explore the qualitative meaning of social capital constructs and related concepts among college students, 2) to develop an instrument to measure the multiple dimensions of social capital in college students, and 3) to examine the relationship between social capital and cigarette use in college students. We expect that the development of a college student social capital instrument will serve to increase understanding of the inter-relations between campus environment and individual characteristics as they relate to smoking behaviors in college students. Such understanding can inform community-level smoking prevention and cessation interventions in order to achieve better and more efficient outcomes. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Patterns of cigarette smoking and other health risk behaviors point to community-level influences. Understanding how community engagement at an individual-level and environmental factors at a community- level operate (using Social Capital Theory) are a critical step to develop effective community interventions for smoking prevention and cessation. College students are particularly vulnerable to high risk behaviors, and colleges can play a key role in early intervention of smoking in order to prevent morbidity and mortality across the lifespan if we can first understand how social capital functions for students.