Effects of a Strength Based I-Change Smoking Cessation Program for Smoking Middle School Boys

Purpose: This study was done to develop a strength based I-change smoking cessation program for middle school boys and identified its effects. Methods: The study design was a nonequivalent control group pre-post test design. The participants were 97 middle school students from D city, who were in school from April 6 to September 25, 2015. The experimental group participated in the strength based I-change smoking cessation program, while the comparative group participated in a general smoking cessation program. The control group did not participate in any program. Data analyses involved chi(2)-test, Fishers' exact test, Bonferroni test, and Repeated measures ANOVA, with the IBM SPSS for Windows (version 20.0) program. Results'. Compared to the comparison and control groups, the experimental group showed significant improvement in knowledge, attitude, self-efficacy, behavior change. Also cotinine in urine and modeling of social influence in the experimental group significantly decreased after the strength based I-change smoking cessation program. Conclusion: These findings indicate that the strength based I-change smoking cessation program is an effective intervention for middle school boys who smoke. The findings suggest that such programs can be used at public health centers or through school health education to decrease smoking in adolescents.