Adolescent smoking in Wales : the role of school smoking policies and the wider school environment

Acknowledging adolescent smoking as a current public health priority both in Wales and elsewhere, this thesis investigated the potential role of school smoking policies in moderating adolescent smoking behaviour. The study builds on a literature which suggests that certain characteristics of school smoking policies may be associated with lower adolescent smoking prevalence in schools, but which call for further research into policy contexts. Particularly, this builds on the work of Moore et al (2001) whose Wales-based study recommended the further investigation of policy contexts, particularly referring to policy content and enforcement. This study adopted a mixed-method approach in order to collect more rigorous data on school smoking policies than in many other studies to date. A teacher survey concerning school smoking policies was conducted in schools taking part in the 2001/2 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study in Wales. Analysis of these data was used to inform interviews conducted with a local 'expert' on smoking policy in the same schools. Interview data were used to investigate key characteristics of smoking policies in schools. Indicator variables were then devised to discriminate between schools on the basis of these characteristics. These were analysed in association with pupil smoking prevalence data collected by HBSC. The multi- level analysis contradicted much of the existing smoking policy literature, discovering no significant association between any policy-level characteristics and pupil smoking. The study concludes that, by using more in- depth data than many other investigations, it has potentially highlighted that the effectiveness of smoking policies in moderating adolescent smoking may be over-stated in the literature or may have changed in recent years. Interview data revealed between-school variation in the prioritisation of smoking policy and the resulting extent to which policy and its enforcement promoted consistent no-smoking messages and suggested potential areas for future investigation and interventionEThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo