Protecting the health of our children: An assessment of state implementation of laws prohibiting tobacco sales to minors

This dissertation focuses on state implementation of the Synar Amendment which was enacted into Law in 1992. The Amendment requires States to: (1) establish laws prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to minors and; (2) enforce those laws by performing random, annual, unannounced inspections of tobacco outlets. Nine years after the passage of the Law, there are considerable differences in implementation outcomes among the states.; The purpose of this research is to ascertain if Goggin et.al.'s (1990) Communications Model can explain these state differences in the implementation of the Synar Amendment. This Model focuses on variables affecting policy implementation and links them together to form a framework to explain implementation policy behavior and policy outcomes on the state level. This research addresses three questions: (A) Has the adoption and implementation of the Synar Amendment by states reduced youth access to tobacco products? (B) Do Goggin et.al.'s (1990) implementation factors, processes, and mechanisms contained in their Communications Model affect state Synar policy outcomes---in this case, youth access to tobacco products? (C) Has the adoption and implementation of the Synar Amendment by states reduced actual use of tobacco product by minors?; This dissertation is divided into five chapters. Chapter One is an introduction stating the background, purpose, the general research design and methodology to be used, along with the significance and limitations of the study. Public policy implementation is also defined and discussed.; Chapter Two presents the Goggin et.al. (1990) Communications Model. The Model's implementation predictor variables are presented and then adapted to the Synar Amendment policy for empirical testing.; Chapter Three presents the research design and methodology used to empirically test the implementation of the Synar Amendment across the fifty States. Twelve hypotheses are developed. Variables are presented and discussed. Indicators are defined, and data sources are identified.; Chapter Four addresses data collection and analysis. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods are applied. Results and findings addressing the three research questions posed in Chapter One are presented.; Chapter Five assesses the theoretical efficacy of Goggin et.al.'s (1990) Communications Model from both an abstract perspective and based on the empirical results obtained in Chapter Four. What was learned from this study and possible recommendations for future research are discussed.