Tobacco control policy advocacy attitudes and self-efficacy among ethnically diverse high school students

This study applied self-efficacy theory to assess empowerment to advocate on behalf of tobacco control policies. The Youth Tobacco Survey with added policy advocacy self-efficacy, attitudes, and outcome expectations scales was given to 9,177 high school students in Texas. Asians showed the lowest prevalence of experimentation and current smoking, followed by African Americans. Anglo-Europeans had higher rates of current smoking. Latino male students had the highest experimentation and current smoking rates. Policy advocacy self-efficacy was higher among African Americans. Latinos scored lowest. Asians had the highest level of approval for tobacco control policies. African Americans had the highest scores in policy advocacy outcome expectations, followed by Asians and Latinos. Anglo-Europeans scored lowest. Students who had never tried smoking had the highest scores in all three scales, with a decreasing trend as the frequency of smoking increased. Associations with smoking status remained significant when controlling by gender and ethnicity.