Assessing skills for refusing cigarettes and smokeless tobacco
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.