In 1980, Oregon Research Institute implemented Programs to Advance Teen Health (PATH), a smoking prevention program that helps seventh and ninth graders learn to resist social pressures to smoke. This report describes PATH and discusses the reasons behind its smoking prevention strategy. The report first notes the importance of preventing teenagers from starting smoking and lists the social factors associated with cigarette use. The next section reviews two other smoking prevention programs. The authors then describe the PATH program and its use of questionnaires, classroom sessions, and peer modelling behavior to teach refusal skills. The program trains teenagers first to recognize peer, adult, or media pressures to smoke and then to make assertive refusals to give in to them. The authors cover procedures for getting parental consent for participation in PATH, teacher training, the initial three-day sessions, the followup "booster" session, and multiple questionnaire assessments of program impact. Final sections of the report discuss the social environment of smoking, the role of the first cigarette, and plans for future studies. Appendices provide copies of the parental consent letter and the smoking questionnaire. (RW)