Parenting Styles as a Moderator of the Association between Pubertal Timing and Chinese Adolescents’ Smoking Behavior

Abstract

Background: Pubertal timing refers to the timing of an individual regarding pubertal sexual maturation, both physiologically and psychologically. Existing research shows that pubertal timing is associated with behavioral problems. This study investigated the role of parenting style in the relationship between pubertal timing and Chinese adolescents’ smoking behavior. Methods: The study examined the association of pubertal timing, parenting style and adolescents’ smoking behavior, using the Pubertal Development Scale (Chinese version), Simplified Parenting Style Scale-Chinese version, and three items related to adolescents’ smoking situation. Participants were 1391 Chinese adolescents aged 11–16 years old (53.41% boys). Hierarchical linear regression analyses assessed the moderating role of parenting style on the association between pubertal timing and adolescent smoking behavior. Results: The results indicated that parenting style moderates the relationship between pubertal timing and adolescent smoking behavior. For male adolescents, father rejection moderated the relationship between early pubertal timing and smoking behavior. For female adolescents, father rejection, father emotional warmth, and mother emotional warmth moderated the relationship between pubertal timing and smoking behavior. Conclusions: Findings from the study highlight the importance of parenting style, which may influence the negative outcomes associated with early pubertal timing and can help improve interventions aimed at reducing these negative outcomes.

The association between pubertal timing and quality of life among children and adolescents: a cross-sectional study in Chongqing, China

“…Our results showed that the early pubertal timing was associated with poorer QOL in children and adolescents, which is similar to the results of the study of Japanese students by Fujimura et al [34]. Compared to previous studies [16,18,34], our study made some advances: First, this study used the PDS and the QOL scale for pubescent children to further explore the relationship between pubertal timing and the dimensions of QOL. Furthermore, our survey was conducted among students in grades 3 through 9 (8 to 15 years old), covering almost all age groups in early and middle adolescence.…”

“…The pubertal timing was evaluated using the total PDS score divided by the number of items. We defined three groups for pubertal timing: early (>mean + 1 SD for peers of the same age and sex), on time (within mean « SD), and late (<mean ¹ 1 SD) [16,30].…”

“…There are many adverse effects of early pubertal timing on children's physical and mental health. Previous studies have shown that early pubertal timing has been associated with depression, low self-esteem, and other mental health problems [13][14][15], as well as smoking [16] and alcohol consumption [17,18]. It also increases the risk of obesity [19], metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular disease [20,21] in children and adolescents.…”

Correlates of e-cigarette use susceptibility among never-smoking youth: A cross-sectional study in Shenzhen, China

“…For the rst time, our study examined the association between parenting styles and youth's susceptibility to e-cigarette use and found that youth with father rejection were more likely to be susceptible to ecigarettes than youth with father emotional warmth. Our nding was in accordance with prior reporting that youth cigarette smoking was positively related to parental rejection and negatively related to parental emotional warmth [39]. According to the stress-coping model, parental styles with emotional warmth will enhance youth's ability to cope with stressful life events and prevent them from e-cigarette use [40].…”

Obstacles to home-based dietary management for caregivers of children with citrin deficiency: a qualitative study

“…Owing to the dual influence of traditional culture and political strategy [26,27], almost all parents attach great importance to the education and training of their children. Moreover, the inappropriate behavior of children is usually attributed to the parenting style employed by their parents [28,29]. Therefore, understanding the contradiction between modern medicine and tradition is a prerequisite for adopting correct dietary management measures.…”