Qualitative development of smoking prevention programming for minority youth

Brief discussion groups were completed with 211 predominantly African American and Latino seventh graders to investigate reasons for adolescent smoking and perceived efficacious smoking prevention program strategies. Study data consisted of audiotaped group discussions, which were content-coded, and open-ended posttest responses. The results indicated that, through use of relatively nondirected methods, reasons for smoking and smoking prevention methods generated by African American and Latino youth were similar to those popularly endorsed by white youths in previous research. Perhaps, optimal program contents are similar across ethnic groups. Still, one may speculate that identification with and diffusion of prevention messages may be maximized if they demonstrate cultural relevancy.