Which lesson components mediate refusal assertion skill improvement in school-based adolescent tobacco use prevention?

Abstract

Any of three components of current school-based refusal assertion training might mediate improvement of seventh grade students' ability to refuse tobacco use offers: 1) teaching students knowledge of ways to say "no," 2) engaging students in the practice of refusal assertion, or 3) motivating students to perform refusal assertion in a socially skilled way. A 3-condition true field experimental "component study" of the differential effects of these three components yielded improvement in role-played behavioral skill to refuse tobacco offers that was evident in both the Knowledge and Practice conditions but not in the Motivation condition. In these same two conditions, skills training led to a significant decrease in students' intention to use smokeless tobacco in the future but not cigarettes. A focus on engaging students in Knowledge and Practice components of refusal assertion training appears warranted.