Assessing skills for refusing cigarettes and smokeless tobacco

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.

Ways to Say No: Refusal Skill Strategies Among Urban Adolescents

“…12,13,19,24 Although these studies report high interrater reliability, they provide no explanations of what makes a student more or less effective in the eyes of the raters. In an interesting exception, one study 26 examined associations between adult raters' assessments of refusal skill effectiveness and specific nonverbal behaviors in a role-play.…”

“…[12][13][14][15] These strategies involve a combination of verbal and nonverbal assertive skills that can be applied to any request to engage in a problematic behavior. Although previous studies have examined the types of refusal strategies normally generated by adolescents, [16][17][18][19][20][21] the degree to which these strategies are similar across problem behaviors has gone relatively unexplored. The current study examines young adolescents' use of re-fusal skill strategies in role-play situations with 2 different contexts: offers to smoke and to shoplift.…”

“…12,17,25 Changing the subject, walking away, and suggesting an alternative activity are used less frequently. 12,19 The majority of studies that have examined adolescents' generation of refusal skill strategies have done so within the context of refusing drugs or sexual advances (as part of HIV/AIDS prevention programs), [27][28][29] and adolescents' refusal strategies within a non-drug-using, delinquent context, such as vandalism or shoplifting, has yet to be examined.…”

It's not what you say, it's how many different ways you can say it: Links between divergent peer resistance skills and delinquency a year later

“…Many studies have disagreed about what constitutes a specific effective response, however. Using a direct and simple "no" and giving an excuse, for example, have been considered effective in some studies [16,17] and less effective in others because they have been found to invite further pressure and negotiation [18,19]. For the purposes of this study, socially appropriate responses include a simple and direct "no," direct simple statements of the adolescent's position, and offers of prosocial alternatives.…”

Preadolescent Drug Use Resistance Skill Profiles, Substance Use, and Substance Use Prevention

“…Prior studies showed that simple refusal and explaining were effective resistance strategies for adolescents (Sallis, Elder, & Wildey 1990; Turner, Burciaga, Sussman, & Klein-Selski 1993). In this study, latent class analysis indicates that LEAVE and AVOID strategies appear to drive the observed effects in defining skill profiles more so than REFUSE and EXPLAIN in this sample.…”