<![CDATA[According to the World Health Organization, Indonesia ranks third highest in the world in the number of active smokers, with 3.5 million women and 58 million men (WHO, 2022). One region in South Sulawesi Province with active smokers aged 15 years is Makassar City, where 16.58% of adolescents were reported to smoke in 2022 (BPS, 2022). Adolescence is the stage of human development after childhood in which physical, mental, and emotional changes occur. Some adolescents often find it difficult to cope with these changes, so guidance from more mature individuals is needed to protect them from harm (Heng, 2020). This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of health promotion in improving smoking-danger-awareness behavior among junior high school students. This quantitative study used a quasi-experimental approach with a one-group pretest-posttest design to determine the effectiveness of lecture media and teaching aids about the health dangers of smoking on students' knowledge, attitudes, and actions. The population of this study consisted of 256 eighth-grade students at SMP Negeri 9 Makassar (Ministry of Education, 2023). The sample size was 52 students, selected using a purposive sampling technique. The results of the Wilcoxon test analysis obtained a significance value of 0.000 for knowledge, attitudes, and actions, with a p-value < 0.05, from which it can be concluded that lecture media and teaching aids are effective in improving smoking-danger-awareness behavior among junior high school students at SMP Negeri 9 Makassar. It is recommended that institutions make use of instructional media to disseminate health information on the dangers of smoking to students.]]>
