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Preventing Tobacco Use and Addiction Among Young People
What Teachers and Parents Can Do
Teachers Can:
- Set a good example by not using tobacco.
- Use curricula and teaching methods that meet the criteria in CDC’s Guidelines for School Health Programs to Prevent Tobacco Use and Addiction. (See the ordering information below for the Guidelines and see two Programs that Work identified by CDC.)
- Work with other school staff to coordinate tobacco-use prevention efforts and give students consistent, reinforced messages.
- Teach tobacco-use prevention issues in a variety of classes, such as science, history, and English.
- Help students improve their skills to critically analyze messages that glamorize tobacco use on television, in movies, and in magazines and other print media. (See the ordering information below for MediaSharp: Analyzing Tobacco and Alcohol Messages.)
- Encourage and support the efforts of students and school staff to quit using tobacco.
- Prohibit tobacco use by students participating in sports and stress the adverse effects of tobacco on sports performance.
- Involve families and community organizations in tobacco-use prevention activities.
- Evaluate tobacco-use prevention activities and student progress.
- Find and use national, state, and local resources for tobacco-use prevention education.
- Take part in tobacco-use prevention training and share experiences with other teachers.
Parents or Guardians Can:
- Set a good example by not using tobacco and give clear, consistent messages about the dangers of tobacco to your children.
- Provide your children with a tobacco-free environment at home.
- Support coordinated school health programs and insist that they include tobacco-use prevention education.
- If your children already use tobacco:
- Help them set realistic goals for stopping.
- Give them positive reinforcement and encouragement.
- Help them understand the underlying reasons they’re using tobacco (to deal with stress, to feel accepted, to show their independence, etc.).
- Help them substitute positive alternatives such as physical activity or stress management.
CDC’s Guidelines for School Health Programs to Prevent Tobacco Use
The guidelines include seven recommendations for ensuring a quality school program to prevent tobacco use.
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Policy. Develop and enforce a school policy on tobacco use.
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Instruction. Provide instruction about the short- and long-term negative physiologic and social consequences of tobacco use, social influences on tobacco use, peer norms regarding tobacco use, and life skills such as communicating, decision-making, and goal-setting.
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Curriculum. Provide tobacco-use prevention education in grades K–12.
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Training. Provide program-specific training for teachers.
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Family Involvement. Involve parents or families in support of school-based programs to prevent tobacco use.
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Tobacco Cessation Efforts. Support cessation efforts among students and school staff who use tobacco.
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Evaluation. Assess the tobacco-use prevention program at regular intervals.
Online Resource:
CDC’s Guidelines for School Health Programs to Prevent Tobacco Use and Addiction
Printed copies of this document are available from CDC, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Adolescent and School Health, ATTN: Resource Room, 4770 Buford Highway, Mailstop K-32, Atlanta, GA 30341-3717; phone 770-488-3082.
Tobacco Prevention Programs that Work
CDC has identified two research-based curricula that reduce the risk of tobacco use and addiction among youth: Life Skills Training and Project TNT (Towards No Tobacco Use). Both of these programs are to be used in middle schools. Both programs look at some of the primary causes of tobacco use and whether improving students’ self-image will increase resistance to tobacco use. Both programs also focus on counteracting advertising images that portray smoking as a desirable social behavior.
MediaSharp: Analyzing Tobacco and Alcohol Messages
Today’s young people are bombarded with persuasive messages about tobacco in advertising, promotions, and the entertainment media–messages that make smoking look normal and cool. MediaSharp is a multi-media program to help young people evaluate those messages and make healthy, life-saving choices. The MediaSharp kit includes an entertaining 7-minute classroom video and a teacher’s guide loaded with activities. To order a free kit, call (770) 488-5705 (press 2) or send an E-mail to tobaccoinfo@cdc.gov.
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