Close friends', parents', and older siblings' smoking: Reevaluating their influence on children's smoking

Abstract

A number of longitudinal studies have explored the role of friends', parents', and older siblings' smoking in children's smoking acquisition. A reasonable implication of this previous research is that intervention efforts could be beneficially directed toward countering the potential influence of friends' and possibly older siblings' smoking but not parents' smoking. However, methodological limitations of this previous research motivated our reevaluation of the role of friends', parents', and older siblings' smoking in children's smoking. Close friends' smoking status was assessed when children were in 5th grade, whereas parents' and older siblings' smoking status was assessed when children were in 3rd grade. The outcome, children's daily smoking status, was assessed in 12th grade. The setting was 40 Washington state school districts that participated in the long-term Hutchinson Smoking Prevention Project. Participants were the 4,576 families for whom close friends', parents', and older siblings' smoking status as well as children's smoking status were available. The probability that each close friend's smoking influenced the child to smoke daily was 9% (95% CI = 6%-12%), the probability that each parent's smoking influenced the child to smoke daily was 11% (95% CI = 9%-14%), and the probability that each older sibling's smoking influenced the child to smoke daily was 7% (95% CI = 1%-13%). These results suggest that close friends', parents', and siblings' smoking were similarly important influences on children's smoking. Family-focused interventions could be a valuable future direction of prevention research.

Continued Importance of Family Factors in Youth Smoking Behavior

“…However, we did not fi nd support for the role of parental smoking on youth smoking initiation which others have reported ( Bauman, Carver, & Gleiter, 2001 ;Bricker, Peterson, Sarason, Andersen, & Rajan, 2007 ;Bricker et al, 2006 ;Skinner, Haggerty, & Catalano, 2009 ). In our sample, parental smoking rates did not vary with time nor was it associated with smoking initiation.…”

“…infl uence of peer smoking also increases ( Bricker et al, 2006 ;Ennett et al, 2008 ; ) and was associated with increased rates of smoking initiation across all racial/ethnic groups. However, we did not fi nd support for the role of parental smoking on youth smoking initiation which others have reported ( Bauman, Carver, & Gleiter, 2001 ;Bricker, Peterson, Sarason, Andersen, & Rajan, 2007 ;Bricker et al, 2006 ;Skinner, Haggerty, & Catalano, 2009 ).…”

Prevalence of Tobacco Use Among School Going Adolescents in Bhopal

“…[16,17] The results of a longitudinal study too emphasized that close friends', siblings', and parents' smoking were all important influences on children's smoking. [18] The present study differs from the previous research works in the finding that a sibling seen smoking was found to have a stronger effect on tobacco use by the adolescent than peer influence. This could be explained by the fact that in the context of Indian culture, the family still retains a considerable influence over the adolescent as compared to western countries, where the adolescents seek to gain independence quite early and relate more with their peer group.…”

Estilos parentais como fator de proteção ao consumo de tabaco entre adolescentes brasileiros

“…Intergenerational repetition seems to involve some aspects of development, such as the identification of the young people with figures of reference. Therefore, living with smoking parents or siblings seems to favor the commencement of smoking by adolescents 21,22 .…”