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Assessing skills for refusing cigarettes and smokeless tobacco

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Abstract

Hops and colleagues developed an audiotaped refusals skills test in which students respond to cigarette offers and their responses are scored for content. The present study employed a modified analogue skills test. Modifications included adding a separate subscale for smokeless tobacco, emphasizing repeated offers and group pressure, and rating the quality of responses (good, fair, poor). The test was evaluated in four seventh-grade classrooms (N=78). Half had participated in a refusals skills training program; the others were controls. Intervention subjects provided more “good” responses and fewer “poor” responses than controls. In a multiple regression, repeated and group offers were associated with the quality of response, while offerer's gender and type of tobacco variables were not associated. In a second regression, experimental condition was associated with quality of the responses, while gender, ethnicity, exposure to tobacco, use of tobacco, and attitudes toward the test were not associated.

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This work was supported by Grant R01-CA44921 from the National Cancer Institute to John P. Elder.

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Sallis, J.F., Elder, J.P., Wildey, M.B. et al. Assessing skills for refusing cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. J Behav Med 13, 489–503 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00844834

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