Development of Cartoon Media to Provide Knowledge on Smoking Prevention in Early School Children

Abstract

This research and development study aimed to 1) investigate causes of smoking among children at an early age, 2) develop an educational cartoon media titled "Daddy, what is a cigarette?", and 3) examine the effectiveness of the cartoon media in educating early school-age children on smoking prevention. Samples consisted of 30 students in grade 2 from Municipal School 1 in Nong Sai, Udon Thani province. The study was conducted in three steps: 1) a literature review to study the causes of early smoking in children, 2) the development of the cartoon media and evaluation of student satisfaction, and 3) the effectiveness of cartoon media were examined for this study. The research tools were evaluated by five experts, including 1) a cartoon media titled "Daddy, what is a cigarette?" yielding a content validity ratio of 0.99 and 2) a 10-item knowledge test on smoking prevention with a consistency index ranging from 0.67 to 1.00. The data were analyzed using frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations. The paired t-tests were used for statistical analysis. The results showed that 1) the main factors contributing to early smoking in children included individual, family, and societal influences, 2) the satisfaction level of children with cartoon media was found to be at a very high level (=4.53, SD=0.75) and 3) after exposed to the cartoon media, children showed a significant increase in their knowledge scores compared to before watching the media (p-value <0.01, Mean difference 2.60, 95%CI 1.70-3.49).

It can be concluded that the cartoon media titled “Daddy, what is cigarette?” is effective in providing knowledge for children and should be replicated elsewhere.