Marketing and Explanatory Processes in Tobacco Progression Among Vulnerable Youth
Principal Investigator: Alan Stacy and Susan Ames
Funding Mechanism: National Institutes of Health- Grant
ID number: 1R01HD077560-01
Award Date: 9/17/2013
Institution: Claremont Graduate University
Previous longitudinal research on the effects of tobacco marketing has not focused on vulnerable populations or on youth in later adolescence, when tobacco use experimentation often escalates and consolidates into life-long habits; in particular, point-of-sale (POS) advertising may have especially strong, explainable effects in low socioeconomic status (SES) neighborhoods and vulnerable populations. This three-wave, multi-cohort, prospective longitudinal study will investigate the effects of tobacco marketing on tobacco use escalation in a low SES, multi-ethnic population of 1000 adolescents (aged 16-20) with substantially higher rates of smoking than the national norm. Investigators will apply various models of behavior, memory, and decision-making to understand tobacco use progression in this population. Specific aims are: (1) to evaluate the use of explanatory models in analyzing tobacco use progression and tobacco marketing, including the impact of POS tobacco advertising and price promotions on tobacco use trajectories (i.e., onset, escalation, and cessation); (2) to compare the relative influence of two fundamental classes of mediators of tobacco marketing effects (spontaneous associations and explicit cognitive processes); (3) to examine the specific influence of POS marketing on smokeless tobacco use and test the explanatory models evaluated in Aim 1; (4) to evaluate the influence of POS marketing on a vulnerable population of Hispanic and non-Hispanic white adolescents with a documented higher risk of tobacco use; and (5) to summarize findings in terms of FDA policy implications.