Positive peer pressure to reduce underage smoking?
In an interesting new study, researchers found that getting cool kids to take an anti-smoking stance actually reduced the number of new smokers in the group by about twenty-five percent.
The study published in the journal Lancet took a different approach than most tobacco cessation programs aimed at youths by asking students to nominate others they viewed as influential or leaders to spread the anti-smoking message.
This peer selection proved more effective than conventional programs and greatly reduced the number of students likely to start smoking, the researchers said.
The results were significant. Students in the peer selection group were 23 percent less likely to start smoking after one year and 15 percent less likely after two years than young people in schools with traditional cessation programs.
This would translate into a potential reduction of 43,000 14- to 15-year olds who take up smoking each year.
We already know that our kids face (or will face) peer pressure and the influence of the cool kids in school: what clothes to wear, what gadgets to pester parents for, etc. But I have to admit that I’d never quite thought about switching things around and using the status of popular kids to firm up positive, healthy mindsets in the general student populace.
Hey, whatever works, right?
Posted by Sunshine.
