Survey and evaluation methods: smoking prevention among children and adolescents.

Past behavioral research on the special characteristics of tobacco smoking among children and adolescents is fraught with definitional ambiguities. More precise benchmarks of these age groups will facilitate mutually advantageous investigations. Researchers ought to agree on their target age cohorts. Too, investigators should account for the peculiar tobacco smoking patterns of children and adolescents who are research subjects. Finally, researchers should reach a consensus on how they categorize various kinds of young nonsmokers, smokers, and exsmokers. Recommendations put forth here are an attempt toward common parameters for researching tobacco use among American children and adolescents.