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Support for smoke‐free vocational education settings: An exploratory survey of staff behaviours, experiences and attitudes
Author(s) -
Bonevski Billie,
Paul Christine L.,
Walsh Raoul A.,
Bryant Jamie,
Lecathelinais Christophe
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
health promotion journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.515
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 2201-1617
pISSN - 1036-1073
DOI - 10.1071/he11011
Subject(s) - population health , vocational education , health economics , medical education , public health , medicine , smoke , community health , exploratory research , psychology , nursing , pedagogy , sociology , engineering , waste management , anthropology
Issue addressed TAFE staff are likely to play a pivotal role in achieving smoke‐free environments for vocational education. The aim of this survey was to explore staff experiences, behaviours and attitudes towards smoking and smoke‐free policies for the TAFE setting. Method A web‐based survey that measured smoking behaviours, on‐campus exposure to smoking, awareness of smoke‐free policies and attitudes towards smoking and tobacco control was e‐mailed to all staff at one TAFE New South Wales (NSW) institute. In total, 632 staff completed the survey. Results Overall, 10% of staff reported to be current daily, weekly or occasional smokers. Most staff (76.2%) said that they saw someone smoking at TAFE every day and the most common location was ‘outside buildings’ (75.3%). A majority of staff (75.9%) said they avoided places at TAFE where they were exposed to other peoples' cigarette smoke. Only 26% said that existing smoking policies were always enforced. Non‐smokers had a significantly higher (p<0.005) pro‐tobacco control attitudes score mean of 4.2 (SD=1.8), compared with the mean of 2.3 (SD=1.4) for current smokers. Status as a non‐smoker was the only statistically significant predictor of high pro‐tobacco control attitude score. Conclusions This study provides preliminary evidence that TAFE staff are likely to be supportive of smoke‐free TAFE campuses. So what? TAFE is an important setting for discouraging smoking uptake and supporting cessation among young adults. This survey reports support for smoke‐free TAFE campuses among staff.