The Influence of Parental Smoking on Youth Smoking: Is the Recent Downplaying Justified?

Males, Mike, Journal of School Health

Parental smoking has emerged as a significant influence on youth smoking in a variety of studies. Smoking by parents has been shown to be a significant, general factor promoting youth smoking,[1,2] strongly affecting elementary[3] and school-age youth, exerting greater influences than peer smoking[4] and socioeconomic status,[5] and even displaying continuing, although lesser, effects on smoking by teens as old as college age.[6] A recent study rating parental attitude toward smoking as more important than parental smoking behavior, nonetheless found that children of smoking parents who disapproved of smoking were more likely to smoke than children of nonsmoking parents who did not disapprove of smoking.[7] That "75% of all teen-age smokers come from homes where parents smoke"[8] and "smoking habits of children are highly correlated with smoking habits of parents"[9] was accepted official wisdom until the mid-1980s.

However, parental smoking recently has been down-played as health lobbyists increasingly emphasized influences external to the home. The 1994 U.S. Surgeon General's report, Preventing Tobacco Use Among Young People, did not mention parental smoking as a factor in youth smoking and devoted only one sentence to dismissing the issue.[10] Yet studies emphasizing alternative motivators, such as tobacco advertising[11,12] and peer pressures,[13] have been mixed or inconclusive, especially as to generality of effect,[14] and typically do not examine the competing hypothesis and context of parental smoking.

Have things changed? Should health educators regard parental smoking as trivial in the decision of youth to smoke today? Does parental smoking affect the response of students to school health promotion? The following discussion examines these questions for younger students, age 1015, in health classes in four northern Los Angeles junior high schools.

THE LOS ANGELES SURVEY

Prior to an anti-smoking presentation by Jerry and Sharon Anderson of the American Cancer Society, a brief, anonymous baseline survey on smoking was administered to students in health classes at four northern Los Angeles junior high schools in spring 1993. The survey obtained basic demographic information and asked if neither, one, or both parents smoked, whether the youth had ever smoked,had smoked during the past week, or had smoked during the past 24 hours, and whether the youth would, might, or would not smoke in the future. Of 410 surveys distributed, 407 completed baseline surveys were returned; three were discarded due to incompleteness.

Students in classes with 320 students then immediately heard an anti-smoking presentation by the Andersons. The presentation featured a talk by Jerry Anderson, whose larynx was removed due to smoking-induced cancer. Students and teachers reported strong emotional reaction by students to seeing the …

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Publication information: Article title: The Influence of Parental Smoking on Youth Smoking: Is the Recent Downplaying Justified?. Contributors: Males, Mike - Author. Journal title: Journal of School Health. Volume: 65. Issue: 6 Publication date: August 1995. Page number: 228+. © 1999 American School Health Association. COPYRIGHT 1995 Gale Group.

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