ABSTRACTSixth‐grade students (N = 56) were assigned randomly to one of four experimental conditions: pretest and primary prevention; primary prevention; pretest; and neither pretest nor primary prevention. In eight group sessions, primary prevention students learned facts, problem solving, decision making, self‐instructions and interpersonal skills to help keep them from using tobacco. All students completed posttests and a six‐month follow‐up. Compared with untrained controls, trained students had greater knowledge of smoking, more perspectives on tobacco problems, better linkages between problems and solutions, more insights on the consequences of nonsmoking decisions and greater nonverbal and verbal competence in tobacco use situations. Follow‐up data showed trained students with stronger commitments to tobacco abstinence, more frequent refusals of tobacco, and less smoking than controls. Midway through seventh grade, 8% of trained students and 37.5% of controls had smoked in the most recent month.