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Each day in the U.S., approximately 3,800 young people under the age of 18 smoke their first cigarette and 1,000 young people become daily cigarette smokers. School personnel can play an invaluable role in helping students quit and abstain from the use of tobacco.1

Youth Smoking

More than 80% of adult smokers begin smoking before 18 years of age.2

Some factors associated with youth tobacco use include low socioeconomic status, peer approval of smoking, exposure to smoking in the media, low levels of academic achievement, low self-esteem, and aggressive behavior.3

Various school-based prevention programs offer one way to prevent tobacco initiation in youth. SAMHSA’s National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices reviews and rates school-based prevention programs.4 In addition, there are specific resources designed to address youth tobacco cessation.

What can faculty members do?

  • Set a good example by not using tobacco.5
  • Work with other staff, such as the school nurse or health center staff, to coordinate tobacco-use prevention efforts.5
  • Encourage and support the efforts of students and staff to quit using tobacco.5
  • Participate in tobacco-use prevention training.5
  • Evaluate tobacco-use prevention activities in schools.5

What can school administrators and board members do?

  • Organize a school health committee that includes all key groups and is able to develop tobacco-use prevention policies and programs.5
  • Enact and enforce policies that require school facilities and events to be smoke-free.5
  • Communicate tobacco-use prevention policies to staff, students, parents, and the community through board meetings, mailings, and assemblies.4,5
  • Require tobacco-use prevention education for students in grades K-12.5
  • Involve teachers, staff, and families in key decisions about tobacco cessation programs.5
  • Encourage activities to evaluate the effectiveness of programs to prevent tobacco use, such as giving an anonymous tobacco use survey annually.4,5

Successful school-based prevention programs address:

  • Short and long-term undesirable social, physiological, and cosmetic consequences of tobacco use.6
  • Social norms regarding tobacco use.6
  • Reasons adolescents provide for smoking.6
  • Social influences that promote tobacco use.6
  • Behavioral skills for resisting social influences that promote tobacco use.6
  • Social skills, such as assertiveness, communication, goal-setting, and problem-solving, which help adolescents resist tobacco use.6

In elementary school, students should learn that:

  • A drug is a chemical that changes how the body works.6
  • All tobacco contains a drug called nicotine.6
  • Tobacco use is harmful to health.6
  • Some advertisements try to persuade people to smoke.6
  • Most young persons and adults do not use tobacco.6

In middle school, students should learn that:

  • Reinforce what should be learned in elementary school (see above points).6
  • Maintaining a tobacco-free environment has benefits.6
  • Community organizations have information about tobacco and how to quit using tobacco. 6
  • Smoking cessation programs can be successful.6
  • Tobacco contains other harmful substances in addition to nicotine.6

In high school, students should learn that:

  • Reinforce what should be learned in elementary and middle schools (see above points).6
  • Tobacco use during pregnancy has harmful effects on the fetus.6
  • Schools and community organizations can provide a tobacco free environment.6
  • Many persons find it hard to stop using tobacco.6

Success Stories

West Virginia

West Virginia’s Office of Healthy Schools (OHS), the Division of Tobacco Prevention (DTP), and the West Virginia Prevention Research Center (WVPRC) collaborated to reduce tobacco use among youth. Supported in part by CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health, the OHS partnered with the DTP to develop a Strategic Plan for Tobacco Prevention in schools. The OHS also assisted the WVPRC in developing Not-On-Tobacco, the most widely used U.S. teen smoking cessation program. The DTP-funded Regional Tobacco Prevention Specialists Network has created tobacco prevention programs in all 55 West Virginia school districts.7

Between 2008 and 2010, the percentage of West Virginia schools that prohibit tobacco use at all times in all locations increased from 73% to 79%. Additionally, the percentage of high school students who currently smoke in the state declined from 28% in 2007 to 22% in 2009.7

North Carolina

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’ Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch, the Health Wellness and Trust Fund, and the state’s Tobacco-Free Schools (TFS) Initiative addressed youth tobacco use in North Carolina schools. Individuals and teams working with the North Carolina Healthy Schools Initiative provided access for the Tobacco Control Program to engage school administrators in promoting TFS policies. Teams also conducted workshops to train principals, school nurses, and administrators in ways to comply with TFS policies. The initiative also hosted forums with superintendents, principals, and school board members, encouraging them to support TFS policies.8

As a result, the percentage of school districts in North Carolina adopting 100% TFS policies increased from 5% in 2000 to 75% in 2007. By July 2008, all of North Carolina’s school districts were 100% tobacco free.8

Massachusetts

The Youth Action Initiative is a program designed to engage Massachusetts youth between the ages of 12 and 18 in the statewide movement against tobacco.9

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health Tobacco Control Program and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MDESE) Coordinated School Health Program, supported by the CDC, sponsored 17 “Smoke-Free Schools” mini-grant projects during the 2006-2007 school year. These grants allowed youth-led groups to address youth smoking and smoking on school property.9

More than 80 student leaders in 17 schools planned and implemented mini-grant projects. Student projects addressed the problem of tobacco use and raised awareness of tobacco as an issue in schools. Involving student leaders in smoking cessation projects sent the important message to peers that “not everyone is smoking.”9

Resources

Tobacco Use Among Youth: Publications and Resources includes the CDC guidelines for school health programs to prevent tobacco use and encourage tobacco cessation.

Life Skills Training provides evidence-based substance abuse programs for schools, families, and communities.

Mind Over Matter: Teacher's Guide is designed to encourage students in grades 5-9 to learn about the biological effects of drug use on the brain.

The Youth Tobacco Cessation Collaborative provides information on youth cessation programs and information on youth smoking cessation specifically for clinicians, teachers, and parents.

Last updated: September 06, 2012
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References
  1. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2010). Results from the 2010 national survey on drug use and health: Summary of national findings. Retrieved August 21, 2012 from http://www.samhsa.gov/data/NSDUH/2k10NSDUH/2k10Results.pdf
  2. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (1994). Preventing tobacco use among young people: A report of the surgeon general. Retrieved August 21, 2012 from  http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/sgr/1994/index.htm
  3. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2000). Reducing tobacco use: A report of the surgeon general. Retrieved August 21, 2012 from http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/sgr/2000/index.htm
  4. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. SAMHSA’s National registry of evidence-based programs and practices. Retrieved August 28, 2012 from http://nrepp.samhsa.gov
  5. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2000). How you can help. Retrieved August 21, 2012 from
    http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/tobacco/pdf/help.pdf
  6. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (1994). Guidelines for school health programs to prevent tobacco use and addiction. Retrieved August 28, 2012 from http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00026213.htm
  7. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). West Virginia: Joining forces to improve tobacco prevention efforts. Retrieved August 21, 2012 from http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/stories/pdf/2010-11/success_1011_wv.pdf
  8. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). North Carolina: Making tobacco-free schools a reality in a tobacco growing state. Retrieved August 21, 2012 from http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/stories/pdf/2009/success_09_nc.pdf
  9. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). Massachusetts’ Mini-grants: Empowering students to inspire peers to stop smoking. Retrieved August 21, 2012 from
    http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/stories/pdf/2008/success_08_ma.pdf