Summary: | Introduction
Though university smoke-free and tobacco-free campus policies have
been proliferating across the US, compliance and enforcement remain challenges.
This study examined perceptions and behaviors of employees and students who
used tobacco products on tobacco-free campuses, to better understand policy noncompliance.
Methods
Students (n=56) and employees (n=20) from two tobacco-free 4-year
public universities in Southern California who self-reported using tobacco products
on campus participated in focus groups, stratified by university and student or
employee (faculty and staff) status, to discuss attitudes toward campus tobacco
policies and on-campus smoking. Focus group discussions were transcribed and
analyzed after structured coding and subcoding.
Results
Participants were generally aware that smoking and vaping were not allowed
on campus, though few could correctly identify their campus as tobacco-free.
Attitudes toward the policy varied by subgroup and by campus, with students
and employees at different universities expressing varying levels of support. Non-compliance
was a unique interaction of individual, institutional, and interpersonal
factors including a desire to smoke or vape to reduce stress, lack of formal
enforcement or penalty for violating the policy, and efforts to smoke or vape in
ways that reduce harm to others as a way of rationalizing non-compliance.
Conclusions
Attitudes toward university tobacco-free policies are campus- and
constituency-specific, with similarities in individual, institutional, and interpersonal
factors underlying non-compliance. Interventions to increase compliance should
address individual, institutional, and interpersonal influences on non-compliance
through efforts tailored to specific campus constituencies based on their particular
knowledge and attitudes towards tobacco-free policies.
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