Toward an Intergenerational Model for Tobacco

The growing prominence of community-based participatory research (CBPR) presents as an opportunity to improve tobacco-related intervention efforts. CBPR collaborations for tobacco/health, however, typically engage only adults, thus affording only a partial understanding of community context as related to tobacco. This is problematic given evidence around age of tobacco use initiation and the influence of local tobacco environments on youth. The CEASE and Resist youth photovoice project was developed as part of the Communities Engaged and Advocating for a Smoke-free Environment (CEASE) CBPR collaboration in Southwest Baltimore. With the broader CEASE initiative focused on adult smoking cessation, CEASE and Resist had three aims: (1) elucidate how youth from a high-tobacco-burden community perceive/interact with their local tobacco environment, (2) train youth as active change agents for tobacco-related community health, and (3) improve intergenerational understandings of tobacco use/impacts within the community. Fourteen youth were recruited from three schools and trained in participatory research and photography ethics/guiding principles. Youth met at regular intervals to discuss and narrate their photos. This article provides an overview of what their work revealed/achieved and discusses how including participatory youth research within traditionally adult-focused work can facilitate intergenerational CBPR for sustainable local action on tobacco and community health