October 1, 2001
Dartmouth Researchers Funded to Study Adolescent Smoking
James Sargent, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Community and Family
Medicine, has been awarded a four-year, $3.6 million grant from the National
Cancer Institute to continue a study of the association between exposure to
movies and adolescent smoking and to evaluate the role of parents in restricting
this exposure. The research team includes Dartmouth investigators Madeline
A. Dalton, Research Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, and Todd F. Heatherton,
Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, and Michael Beach, Assistant
Professor of Anesthesiology.
The research includes a content analysis of top box office hits and video
releases for the years 2001-2004 and a two-year longitudinal survey of children
(4th to 8th grade at baseline) and their parents. The study will attempt to
describe how exposure to movie tobacco use changes as adolescents age, to
evaluate the impact of movies on changes in attitudes toward smoking and smoking
behavior, and to examine parental attitudes and behaviors regarding movie
restrictions for their children. It will also examine how restrictions change
as children age and how these restrictions relate to movie exposure and initiation
of tobacco use.
The research team will use this information to develop interventions to motivate
and assist parents in implementing and maintaining movie restrictions. This
work could lead to new approaches to reduce smoking among U.S. adolescents.
Susan Martin
Project coordinator
