Three Methods of Assessing Adolescent School-Level Experimentation of Tobacco Products

Three methods of use of estimate tobacco products experimentation were examined in nineteen schools (thirteen junior high schools and six high schools). Convergent and discriminant validity of measures of student experimentation of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco were assessed using Campbell and Fiske's (1959) criteria to analyze a multitrait-multimethod correlation matrix produced by two traits (cigarettes and smokeless tobacco) and three methods (aggregated students' self-report of tobacco experimentation, school personnel prevalence estimates of student tobacco experimentation, and school outdoor refuse evidence of tobacco products). The student self-report and the school staff estimate methods demonstrated good convergent validity. The refuse method showed convergent validity with the student self-reports of smokeless tobacco only. Evidence for discriminant validity was only suggestive. It appears that the school personnel method is the most useful and economic alternative for estimating school-level tobacco experimentation.