To regularly monitor young people’s opinions about tobacco control and aid the development of appropriate health promotion strategies, participants in the 2014 YIS were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the following tobacco control measures: banning smoking in outdoor areas where young people go, implementing annual tax increases, reducing retailer availability, and banning the sale of tobacco in New Zealand.
Methodology
To regularly monitor young people’s opinions about tobacco control and aid the development of appropriate health promotion strategies, participants in the 2014 YIS were asked whether they agreed or disagreed with the following tobacco control measures: banning smoking in outdoor areas where young people go, implementing annual tax increases, reducing retailer availability, and banning the sale of tobacco in New Zealand.
Agreement with each statement was examined by gender, ethnicity, smoking status and susceptibility to smoking (among never smokers) (see the ‘About the Youth Insights Survey’ section for more detail and relevant comparison groups). When looking at differences by gender and ethnicity, we have controlled for smoking status. This means that we take into account whether or not the respondent smoked to ensure that any difference found by gender or ethnicity is not in fact due to the respondent’s own smoking status. Only statistically significant (p < .05) differences between groups are reported.
Agreement with these statements was also assessed in 2012 (and in 2010 for agreement with smoking bans in outdoor areas where young people go). Further analyses of these data were, therefore, undertaken to examine changes over time.
Key Results
• The majority of young people agreed with the suggested tobacco control measures.
• Reducing retailer availability, in terms of decreasing the number of places where cigarettes and tobacco can be sold, received the strongest support: more than three-quarters of young people agreed with this measure.
• Different patterns in response were seen by smoking status, with those who had never smoked showing the highest levels of agreement with each measure.
• Although current smokers showed the lowest levels of agreement, a proportion did agree with each measure.
• The proportion of young people who agreed that smoking should be banned in all outdoor places where young people go was significantly lower in 2014 than in 2012.