The Mississippi Social Climate of Tobacco Control, 2000-2001

The Social Climate Survey provides a method to monitor changes in social and environmental objectives, as well as an institutional framework to organize and interpret these results. This approach operationalizes the concept of social climate into a set of quantifiable social and environmental indicators - organized within an institutional framework. Social scientists typically conceptualize societal changes as occurring through changes in social institutions, such as the family, school, work place, and government. As a fundamental component of a society, these social institutions emerge as clusterings of beliefs, norms, and practices. Moreover, beliefs, norms, and practices about tobacco use and tobacco control have evolved in each of these institutional areas which then shape the status of tobacco use in the social fabric of American society. The Social Climate Survey consists of a set of questions designed to measure the norms, practices, and beliefs concerning tobacco within each of the following institutions; 1) Family and Friendship Groups, 2) Education, 3) Government and Political Order, 4) Work, 5) Health and Medical Care, 6) Recreation, Leisure, and Sports, and 7) Mass Communication and Culture. Tobacco control and tobacco use is not carried out in a vacuum. Youth and adults make choices about tobacco use in the social context of institutional beliefs, norms, and practices.