Abstract
The objective of this study was to examine how different ways of describing a hypothetical tobacco-free campus policy would impact college students’ perceived level of support from the college. In the spring of 2016, we randomized 1885 undergraduate students in a required course to three message conditions in an online survey: control (no message), wellness (emphasizing promoting health and quitting support), and punitive (emphasizing consequences for violating the policy). The dependent variable was perceived organizational support. We selected items previously shown to be relevant for college students (alpha = 0.92 in our data). Given significant non-normality, we used non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis tests with pairwise comparisons to examine differences in perceived organizational support across the three conditions. We examined results by smoking status and if the participant correctly reported the message they received. We found no significant difference in perceived organizational support among students exposed to different tobacco-free campus policy announcements (p = 0.75). We also found no significant difference among smokers (p = 0.66). However, among smokers who correctly reported the message they received, we found significantly lower perceived university support (p = 0.01). Messages about tobacco-free campus policies should focus on the role of policy in supporting a healthy environment instead of punitive enforcement. Campus administrators should use caution when using message frames focusing on consequences of violating newly adopted policies.
Highlights
The national movement for tobacco-free college and university policies was prompted by a period of sharp uptake in tobacco use among college students in the 1990s [1]
There were no significant differences between the three conditions in perceived organizational support (x2 = 0.58, df = 2, n = 1885, p = 0.75)
There were no significant differences between the three conditions in perceived organizational support among participants who had reported smoking in the last month (x2 = 0.85, df = 2, n = 329, p = 0.66)
Summary
The national movement for tobacco-free college and university policies was prompted by a period of sharp uptake in tobacco use among college students in the 1990s [1]. This movement remains important given the use of alternative tobacco products, such as hookah and electronic cigarettes [2,3]. Such policies have four benefits: (1) they protect students from involuntary smoking or second-hand smoke [5], (2) they likely reduce the prevalence of smoking [6], (3) they likely reduce maintenance costs and risk of fires on campus, and (4) they create an environment that can help college students develop into healthy adults [7,8]. How policies are framed—that is, how they are linked and organized with
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