effects of a school-based interventional program on smoking refusal self-efficacy in adolescent females

Background: education is considered as the most basic method for the prevention of tobacco smoking. self-efficacy can be assumed as the best predictor of smoking behavior in adolescents. aim: the present study aimed to investigate the effects of a school-based interventional program on smoking refusal self-efficacy in adolescent females. method: this randomized controlled trial was conducted on 53 adolescent females in 2017. the participants were randomly divided into two groups of intervention (n=27) and control (n=26). the intervention group was provided with a smoking prevention program implemented five sessions a week in their school classrooms. on the other hand, the control group received the routine interventions. a researcher-made smoking refusal self-efficacy questionnaire was completed before and one month after the intervention. statistical analysis was performed in spss software (version 20.0) using fisher’s exact test, t-test, and mann-whitney u test. results: according to the results, 9 (34.6%) and 7 (25.9%) individuals in the control and intervention groups had smoking fathers, respectively. the two study groups were homogeneous in terms of smoking refusal self-efficacy before the intervention. following the intervention, the mean self- efficacy scores in the intervention and control groups were estimated as 111.55±13.1 and 93.53±25.02, respectively. there was a significant difference between the two groups regarding this variable after the intervention (p=0.02). implications for practice: the school-based interventional program for smoking prevention in accordance with social skills training could effectively increase the level of smoking refusal self- efficacy in adolescent females.