Abstract
BackgroundSecondary schools that implement smoke-free policies are confronted with students who start smoking outside their premises. One solution is to complement smoke-free policies with prohibitions for all students to leave the school area during school hours, technically making school hours a smoke-free period. However, there are strikingly few Dutch secondary schools that implement this approach. This study explores why staff members in the Netherlands decide not to implement smoke-free school hours for all students.MethodWe interviewed 13 staff members, with different functions, from four secondary schools. The analysis was informed by the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) to delve into the values, rationales, and assumptions of staff with the aim to identify deep core, policy core, and secondary beliefs.ResultsWe identified six beliefs. Two deep core beliefs are that schools should provide adolescents the freedom to learn how to responsibly use their personal autonomy and that schools should only interfere if adolescents endanger or bother others. Three policy core beliefs identified included the following: that smoking is not a pressing issue for schools to deal with; that schools should demarcate their jurisdiction to intervene in adolescents’ lives in time, space, and precise risk behavior; and that implementing smoke-free school hours would interfere with maintaining positive student-staff relationships. One secondary belief identified was that smoke-free school hours would be impossible to enforce consistently.ConclusionThis paper was the first to demonstrate the many beliefs explaining why schools refrain from voluntary implementing far-reaching smoke-free policies.
Highlights
Adolescent smoking in European countries remains an issue [1, 2]
We identified two deep core beliefs, three policy core beliefs, and one secondary belief
Staff members argued that schools should take into account that there is a difference in the developmental needs between younger and older adolescents
Summary
Adolescent smoking in European countries remains an issue [1, 2]. Most European governments, increasingly compel secondary schools to implement smoke-free schoolthe implementation of comprehensive SFSPs does not necessarily stop adolescents from smoking during school hours. Adolescent smoking in European countries remains an issue [1, 2]. Most European governments, increasingly compel secondary schools to implement smoke-free school. The implementation of comprehensive SFSPs does not necessarily stop adolescents from smoking during school hours. Adolescents may circumvent comprehensive SFSPs by relocating their smoking to sites outside of the school’s premises [4]. This relocation, as a side-effect of SFSPs, brings about its own issues. Secondary schools that implement smoke-free policies are confronted with students who start smoking outside their premises. This study explores why staff members in the Netherlands decide not to implement smoke-free school hours for all students. The analysis was informed by the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) to delve into the values, rationales, and assumptions of staff with the aim to identify deep core, policy core, and secondary beliefs
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