Tobacco Prevention Education in Schools for the Deaf: The Faculty Perspective

• NCJ Number: 235905
• Journal: Journal of Drug Education Volume: 41 Issue: 2 Dated: 2011 Pages: 135-159
• Author(s): Barbara A. Berman, Ph.D.; Debra S. Guthmann, Ed.D.; Weiqing Liu, M.S.; Leanne Streja, DrP.H.
• Date Published: 2011
• Length: 25 pages
• Grant Number(s): 6RT,0047,BT-1701,10GT-3101; 12HT-3201
• Sponsoring Agency: Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article examines a tobacco-related prevention program.

Abstract

The authors report results of a survey of tobacco education practices and perspectives among faculty at four Schools for the Deaf participating in the trial of a tailored tobacco prevention curriculum. Few faculty (20.4 percent) included tobacco use among the three most important health problems facing their students, although 88.8 percent considered tobacco education to be worthwhile. Despite perceived unmet needs among their students, classroom or school-wide attention to tobacco prevention was limited. Only 13.9 percent reported delivering tobacco programming in the prior year, most often reporting lack of deaf-friendly curriculum and materials (60.9 percent), time (47.8 percent), and training (43.5 percent) as barriers to program delivery. Perceptions, attitudes, and institutional issues, including lack of tailored curriculum, were seen as contributing to the limited focus on this important health problem. (Published Abstract)