College Student Smoking: Social or a Pattern of Infrequent Smoking

Audience: Groups that will benefit will be those who work in cigarette smoking prevention, cessation, and research arena in academic, community, and clinical settings. Key Points: The term social smoker has emerged in recent research and is frequently used to describe college student smoking. No standard definition exists and reasons and contexts for smoking have not been assessed. The key findings emerged from an extensive tobacco use paper-based survey at a large public University to assess smoking history, behavior, and contexts. Only half of those who smoke socially identify themselves as social smokers and 75% of those who smoke do so only in social situations. Social smoking is not only an identifiable subgroup but also a primary characteristic of college students who smoke. These findings were based on sound scientific methodology. Educational Experience: The presentation will be interactive and provide the audience with application of strategies to enhance targeting this population for prevention and cessation efforts. Including these points: Smoking amongst all types of college smokers occurs mainly in a social context and for social reasons. Low-level and infrequent smoking are key characteristics in this population that should be addressed in cessation programming. Benefits: This is one of the few studies that extensively examined smoking behavior in 18-24 year old college students and attempted to establish a standard definition of social smoker. Will provide application of using comprehensive assessment of smoking that includes additional items beyond standard key descriptors for smoking and captures context and reason variables.