Revealing users’ experience and social interaction outcomes following a web-based smoking prevention intervention for adolescents: A qualitative study

Background: Tobacco smoking remains a public health problem among adolescents in the United States. While Web-based interventions for smoking prevention have been successful at the individual level, there is still an urgent need to understand their engagement capabilities and their effects at the social level. In the current study, we aimed to (1) learn about adolescents’ subjective experience with a Web-based program called a smoking prevention interactive experience (ASPIRE), (2) obtain suggestions for improvement in ASPIRE content, (3) identify psychological outcomes of ASPIRE, and (4) explore outcomes of social interaction. Materials and methods: After a randomized controlled trial with 110 adolescents, 20 adolescent users of ASPIRE, aged 11–18, were randomly selected to participate in one-on-one interviews at four after-school programs in Houston, Texas. Interviews involved questions concerning adolescents’ experience with the intervention. Qualitative data were coded and analyzed using a constant comparison approach for the generation of themes. Results: Describing their experience with ASPIRE, participants expressed comfort in material that is tailored to their demographic and preferred interactive activities over entertaining videos. Presenting suggestions for improvement, participants mainly reported the need to include gaming features into ASPIRE. Presenting psychological outcomes, they expressed emotional engagement in the program, shifts in attitudes and beliefs, and unwillingness to smoke. Finally, as outcomes of social interaction, participants reported engagement with others in discussions about tobacco and their need to hold smokers accountable for their actions. Conclusions: Adolescents’ reports moved from their individual experience with ASPIRE to their active interactions with family members and friends and their attempt to persuade others to quit smoking. Future Web-based programs for adolescents may be designed with tailoring and game play in mind, in order to provide mobilization skills and foster social interactions against smoking.