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Adolescents' smokeless tobacco susceptibility by perceived professional baseball players' use
Author(s) -
Chaffee Benjamin W.,
Couch Elizabeth T.,
Gansky Stuart A.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of public health dentistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.64
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1752-7325
pISSN - 0022-4006
DOI - 10.1111/jphd.12228
Subject(s) - smokeless tobacco , league , advertising , perception , psychology , tobacco use , medicine , social psychology , environmental health , population , physics , astronomy , neuroscience , business
Objective Measure associations between adolescent baseball players' perceptions of smokeless tobacco (ST) use by professional baseball players and those adolescents' actual ST use and susceptibility. Methods Male baseball players ( N = 360) at 25 rural California high schools completed tobacco behavior surveys and reported how likely they believed it was their favorite major league baseball player used ST. We compared ST use and, among ST never‐users, willingness and expectations to use ST, according to perceived favorite player's use. Results Adolescents responding that their favorite player definitely or probably used ST were significantly more likely to use ST themselves. High school ST never‐users who perceived that their favorite player definitely used ST were 2.5 to 3‐times more likely to be susceptible to ST initiation than participants responding that their favorite player definitely did not use ST. Conclusions Adolescents' ST behaviors and intentions were correlated with their perceptions of professional baseball players' ST use.