Exposure to Pro-Tobacco Messages: Results from the National Youth Tobacco Survey

Abstract

Objective: To test whether race/ethnicity, gender, and grade influence self-reported exposure to pro-tobacco messages among youth.

Design: Multinomial logistic regression analyses of archival survey data (1999, 2000, and 2002 National Youth Tobacco Surveys). In separate analyses, demographic characteristics of the sample (race/ethnicity, gender, and grade) were regressed on responses to two questions regarding frequency of exposure to pro-tobacco messages. Analyses controlled for respondents' smoking status.

Main outcome measures: Reported frequency of seeing tobacco point of sales (POS) advertisements in stores and self-reported frequency of seeing actors smoking.

Results: Respondents reported generally high frequencies of seeing pro-tobacco messages either in the movies or as POS ads in stores. In comparison to Caucasian youth, African-American and Hispanic youth reported higher frequencies of seeing actors smoking. Surprisingly, non-Caucasian youth reported lower frequencies of seeing POS ads. Results by gender were mixed, but the magnitude of differences between genders was generally small. Youth in grades 6–10 were more likely to report seeing actors smoking and less likely to report seeing POS advertisements.

Conclusions: This research demonstrates that students' demographics are related to exposure to pro-tobacco messages. Given the high prevalence of smoking in movies and television, and POS advertisements, future studies should investigate the extent to which environmental exposure or psychosocial factors predict higher self-reported exposure among demographic groups.