Research Goals & Objectives

Short-Term Research Goals:

• Increase understanding of youth tobacco experimentation, use, addiction, and cessation.
• Increase national and state-based surveillance of youth tobacco-use cessation behavior and use of treatments and services.
• Develop and text tobacco-use treatment programs, services, and interventions for youth.
• Develop a basic infrastructure for youth tobacco-use cessation research and its translation into practice, including a set of tools (common taxonomy, standards of effectiveness, and practice guidelines). Collaborate to develop a prioritized research agenda.

Overview

The short-term goals are designed to address specific priority research needs, to facilitate collaborative research planning, and to begin to outline targeted research projects and programs. The Collaborative acknowledges the necessity not only for conducting basic scientific research related to youth tobacco use and quitting behaviors, but for conducting applied research that addresses the needs articulated in the Implementation and Demand goals that follow.

The research objectives aim to achieve consensus on research priorities and to build the capacity of agencies to work together on a research agenda. (To initiate actions toward addressing these aims, a series of workshops has been recommended; a draft list and timeline appears in Appendix C). These cornerstones can then become the foundation for achieving the long-term goal of creating an ongoing, orchestrated program of research supported by multiple funding agencies.

In order to support scientific research in youth tobacco-use cessation and develop a coordinated research agenda on the national level, it will be necessary to:

• Establish communication networks and databases for information exchange to complement each other’s work and maximize efficiency;
• Establish common definitions and standards for research and interventions;
• Identify key gaps in the scientific knowledge;
• Develop a coordinated research plan to address priority research questions, considering the applied research needs of implementation and demand, and specifying measurable five year research objectives;
• Advocate for funding of youth tobacco-use cessation research.

Addressing the Short-Term Goals: Two Year Research Objectives

Note: The Two-Year Research Objectives have been revised. See the revised goals for 2005 to 2007 »

Biobehavioral Models and Addiction:

• Develop and validate measures of tobacco use and nicotine dependence among youth.
• Evaluate the efficacy of pharmacological and behavioral interventions for youth.
• Develop and evaluate a model of predictors for youth cessation.

Surveillance:

• Conduct periodic national and state surveys of youth tobacco use and cessation behaviors.
• Assess the needs and preferences of youth for cessation interventions, including distinct needs resulting from cultural diversity.

Intervention Research:

• Design and evaluate procedures for recruiting and retaining youth into cessation programs.
• Determine the affects of required parental or other consent on program enrollment, retention, and success.
• Develop standard program evaluation methods; evaluate the efficacy of various types of services, supports, and other interventions.
• Conduct an analysis and evaluation of current best practices in cessation interventions.
• Develop consensus on the criteria for best practices in new interventions.
• Develop and evaluate new methods to deliver cessation support, tailored to the needs of different segments of the population of youth.

Infrastructure:

• Define and prioritize research questions around methods for moving youth cessation research findings and information into widespread application; look at existing models of replication research.
• Promote funding for youth cessation intervention replication research, and support and coordinate replication research as a priority in this field.
• Develop and validate standard cessation outcome measures as they apply to youth.

Addressing the Short-Term Goals: Five Year Research Objectives

Biobehavioral Models and Addiction:

• Continue to evaluate the efficacy of new behavioral and pharmacological interventions for youth as they emerge.
• Develop and refine models of predictors for youth cessation and measures of outcomes over time.
• Continue to develop and modify measures of tobacco use, addiction, and cessation outcomes.

Surveillance:

• Conduct periodic state and national surveys of youth tobacco use and cessation.
• Monitor changes in state and national policies that might affect youth tobacco use and quitting behaviors.
• Continue to assess young tobacco users’ preferences for cessation support; monitor and evaluate changes in preferences.

Intervention Research:

• Continue to develop and modify procedures for recruiting and retaining youth into cessation programs.
• Utilize consensus on best practices to develop and evaluate new methods to deliver cessation support, tailored to the needs of different segments of the population of youth.
• Conduct analyses of the affects of policy changes at the community, state, and national levels on youth quitting behaviors.
• Conduct replication studies of new interventions as they emerge.

Infrastructure:

• Disseminate standard measures of use, addiction, and cessation outcomes as they are developed for youth.
• Advocate for funding to support research on strategies for translating and disseminating information and findings in youth cessation.
• Advocate for creative funding mechanisms that support research dissemination and translation, as well as replication research. Facilitate translation of research findings into new programs and services.

Addressing the Long-Term Goal: Ten Year Research Objectives

• Reassess the status of scientific understanding of youth tobacco use, addiction, and cessation and revise the research agenda accordingly. Ensure that support for research in these areas continues to be a priority.
• Ensure continued surveillance of youth tobacco use and cessation behaviors through the support of networks, collaborations, and infrastructures.
• Ensure widespread use of common measures of addiction and cessation, and common definitions and standards for research.
• Create and sustain mechanisms that support the transfer of effective cessation methods and programs to widespread practice.