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We propose to conduct participatory research on tobacco in the lives of Southeast Asian American youths and in their Northern California communities. We will specifically focus on efforts by the tobacco industry to target youth and communities of color. Studies have shown that more U.S. Southeast Asians smoke than almost any ethnic groups, even in California, where many people have quit, cut back, or never started smoking. In participatory health research, community participants and scientists work together to raise awareness about health problems and about the social contexts within which problems occur. By raising awareness as well as with learning ways to take action, community members can make improvements in their communities and in their own health behaviors. Studies have shown that raising youths' awareness about tobacco marketing can make smoking less attractive to them, which results in less smoking. There are no studies showing that participatory research might reduce smoking among Southeast Asian American (SEAA) youth. In our pilot study, however, we saw some of these effects among the group of youth who worked on the project. For a Full CARA project we wish to see if participatory research on tobacco can also be raise awareness about tobacco influences and decrease attractiveness of smoking in the wider community of Southeast Asian American youth, as well as increase SEAAs’ abilities to take action against tobacco industry strategies targeting their communities.
The project combines the cultural expertise of participants and staff of the Southeast Asian Young Leaders (SEAYL), a youth development program of Community Health for Asian Americans (CHAA), together with the scientific expertise of researchers from the Prevention Research Center (PRC). Through trainings and community-based research, SEAYL members will look closely at the influence of tobacco in their own lives and the lives of their peers and their communities. We will undertake (a) a survey of 200 SEAA residents of West Contra Costa county to assess their use and awareness of tobacco products and advertising; (b) a survey of all 63 shops where tobacco is sold in the city of Richmond to look at what tobacco products are sold and how they are advertised; and (c) PhotoVoice, a method by which community members take pictures of their community and use these pictures to start thinking and talking about the social context of community problems. We will use PhotoVoice together with the community member and store surveys to think about the social context of cigarette smoking by Southeast Asians. We will think about the kinds of messages we would like to convey to other SEAA youth about what we have learned and how best to get these messages across to their peers. We will consider ways to contact SEAA youth through formal and informal networks like social groups, family networks, sports and religious organizations. We will make a plan for using these networks to communicate the youths’ new awarenesses about tobacco to their friends and peers. These presentations will include recommendations for specific actions community members can take to reduce tobacco industry influence in their communities. We will also make presentations to community leaders who may be able to make or enforce laws to protect the community from marketing strategies of the tobacco industry. With surveys of the youth participants and the audiences they reach with their messages, we will see if our project has helped to raise awareness and encourage people to take action to improve their communities, as well as quit or cut back on smoking.
Our proposed research thus addresses TRDRP's Research Priority 4, to prevent and reduce the use of tobacco products and tobacco-related health disparities in California’s disproportionately impacted populations. Additionally, we address TRDRP's Research Priority 5, to advance the ability of communities throughout California to assess and limit the influence of the tobacco industry. |
