Smoking cessation for high school students. Impact evaluation of a novel program.

Matson et al. (2004) ran a quit-smoking program inside a high school. Students got lessons, stress tips, and could add parent help, doctor talks, or medicine.

Twenty-two teens joined. The team tracked who quit and who smoked less each day.

One in four students quit completely. Most of the rest cut their daily cigarettes by about thirteen.

Almost every teen stayed in the program, showing the plan was easy to stick with.

Fiene et al. (2015) pooled many school studies and found behavior contracts help teens change habits. The smoking program used the same self-management idea, so the meta-analysis supports these results.

Barber et al. (1977) cut college driving by 20% with prize tokens. Both studies show older students will shrink a health risk when a clear reward or support plan is in place.

Fritz et al. (2017) boosted campus recycling by making trash cans harder to reach. Like the smoking study, small school tweaks can steer student choices in healthier or greener directions.

You can copy the key parts: teach self-monitoring, offer parent or staff support, and let students choose extras like brief doctor chats. Even without full control groups, the pattern is strong—three quarters of teens either quit or cut back. Try adding a short daily check-in and optional parent text updates to your next high-school behavior plan.