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Smoking is an identified health risk, costing the United States annually nearly a trillion dollars and over 400,000 lives. Yet this risk is entirely preventable. Most people start smoking before age 18 and are influenced to start by media and advertising imagery that promotes smoking as desirable, cool and empowering. Adolescents are spending increasing large amounts of time online, including playing video games. Tobacco content in video games that have been deemed appropriate for all ages has increased dramatically, from less 1% of games in 2005 to over 12% of games by 2011.
The overall goal of this interpretive phenomenological research study is to describe and understand the experiences of adolescent video games players when they encounter smoking imagery and activity during game play. The specific aims of this study are to describe (1) the experience of electronic game players and the factors that motivate them to play extensively, (2) the meaning of smoking imagery and smoking behavior within games and the gaming community for video game players, (3) their perception of risk behavior modeled in games. Data will be collected through audio-taped semi-structured interviews, interviews taking place online using a research avatar, and through field observations of game play. Data analysis will occur throughout the data collection process using interpretive phenomenological methodology.
This proposal addresses TRDRP research priority 4: prevent and treat tobacco use and promote equity among disproportionally impacted groups. Adolescents are disproportionally impacted by tobacco use. In 2010, in California, 13.8% of youth from grades 9-12 were current smokers. By 12th grade, 19.7% of youth were current smokers and 46.3% had tried smoking. Research suggests at that age adolescents are not able to fully comprehend and anticipate the results of risk taking behavior twenties, such as smoking, thus making them more vulnerable to being influenced by positive media portrayals of smoking.
Preliminary findings suggest that adolescents understand the social worlds within games as “real” settings in which they explore identities and practice behaviors. The presence of tobacco-related imagery appears to be accepted as normal and associated with positive characteristics, including being cool, tough and strong. If borne out in this larger study, such findings could have important policy and practice implications similar to those developing around smoking in movies. However, the direct engagement and intimacy of video games creates new challenges not raised by passive observation of film. Greater understanding of the role video games play in adolescents’ social and health-related practices is essential for developing effective tobacco control strategies to address these new media influences. This innovative study will contribute knowledge that could be useful for development and testing of counter-observations and for consideration of possible policies aimed at addressing this emergent phenomenon. |
