Beliefs and perceived norms concerning smoking cessation program recruitment among African American teen smokers: what appeals to youth and what turns them away.

A qualitative approach was used to investigate the beliefs and perceived norms about participation in smoking cessation programs among a sample of African American alternative school students (N = 53), aged 14 to 18 years old, in the United States who were current smokers. The authors found that the majority of participants felt that smoking cessation programs were not effective, caused smoking, or lacked activities. Both boys and girls believed that communication sources that provided direct messages in real situations were the best motivators or incentives for African American youth recruitment into smoking cessation programs. These findings support research that African Americans are more attentive to communications that involve direct personal stimuli. In addition, African Americans place heavy emphasis on source and message style to determine credibility of the intervention strategy.