A web-based contingency management program with adolescent smokers.

Four teens who smoked daily joined a web program from home. They earned gift cards for sending in carbon-monoxide videos that proved they had not smoked.

The researchers flipped the incentive plan on and off twice to be sure the gift cards, not luck, drove the change.

All four kids stayed smoke-free for weeks at a time. They sent 97 out of every 100 required breath videos without any clinic visits.

When the gift cards stopped, three kids quickly smoked again. When pay returned, they quit once more.

Winett et al. (1972) showed the same rule in kindergarten: tokens only help if they are tied to the exact behavior you want. Brady’s team followed that rule by paying only for clean breath samples.

Alwahbi et al. (2021) also used a clear if-then contract in a school. Both studies prove kids stick to the deal when the payoff is spelled out and immediate.

Briere et al. (2025) taught kids with autism to accept nose swabs without force. Both papers show you can get high compliance from home when reinforcement is built into the task itself.

You can run an effective smoking-cessation plan without bringing teens to the clinic. Ask the client to record a 10-second CO video at set times. Pay only after you see the clean-reading strip. The same remote-pay setup could work for other abstinence goals, like vaping or cannabis.