The intergenerational transmission of implicit and explicit attitudes toward smoking: Predicting adolescent smoking initiation

Abstract

This study examined the intergenerational transmission of implicit and explicit attitudes toward smoking, as well as the role of these attitudes in adolescents' smoking initiation. There was evidence of intergenerational transmission of implicit attitudes. Mothers who had more positive implicit attitudes had children with more positive implicit attitudes. In turn, these positive implicit attitudes of adolescents predicted their smoking initiation 18-months later. Moreover, these effects were obtained above and beyond the effects of explicit attitudes. These findings provide the first evidence that the intergenerational transmission of implicit cognition may play a role in the intergenerational transmission of an addictive behavior. Keywords intergeneration transmission; implicit attitudes; explicit attitudes; smokingThe attitude construct has long been considered to be central in social psychology theory and research (Allport, 1954). The major reason for this importance is that attitudes reflect evaluative associations to objects and people and are generally useful in predicting approach-avoidance behaviors toward those objects and people. Despite some earlier questions about the ability of attitudes to predict behavior (Wicker, 1969), once certain conceptual and measurement issues were taken into account, attitudes have, in fact, proven to be useful predictors of behavior (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1977;Fazio & Zanna, 1981;Kraus, 1995).However, attitude measures have not been equally accurate or useful in predicting all types of behaviors. With regard to paper and pencil explicit measures of attitudes, these measures often fail to predict certain behaviors because of concerns with norms and social desirability, which influence self-reports (Crosby, Bromley, & Saxe, 1984;Crowne & Marlowe, 1960;Nosek, 2005). For this reason, in recent years, implicit measures of attitudes have been developed that are not as susceptible to social desirability concerns. These measures reflect more automatic evaluative associations that are not under conscious control and thus do not show distortions in a socially desirable direction. Thus, for example, far more racial or gender prejudice is *Address Correspondence to: Steven J. Sherman, Indiana University, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, 1101 E. 10 th St., Bloomington, sherman@indiana.edu. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. , 1997;Greenwald & Banaji, 1995). For such controversial issues, these implicit measures have successfully predicted behavior better than have paper and pencil measures (Ashburn-Nardo, Knowle...

The Association Between Implicit and Explicit Attitudes Toward Smoking and Support for Tobacco Control Measures

“…Prior studies have found that smokers are less negative than nonsmokers in both implicit and explicit attitudes ( Huijding, de Jong, Wiers, & Verkooijen, 2005 ;Sherman, Rose, Koch, Presson, & Chassin, 2003 ;Swanson, Rudman, & Greenwald, 2001 ). Data from our laboratory have shown that implicit attitudes toward smoking prospectively predicted both smoking initiation among adolescents ( Sherman, Chassin, Presson, Seo & Macy, 2009 ) and smoking cessation among adults ( Chassin, Presson, Sherman, Seo, & Macy, 2010 ). These studies and the current study measured implicit attitudes toward smoking with the Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998 ).…”

A different view on parenting: automatic and explicit parenting cognitions in adolescents’ drinking behavior

“…To the best of our knowledge, however, only two attempts have been undertaken to investigate the relationship between smoking in adolescents and automatic parental cognitions about smoking. A cross-sectional (Chassin et al, 2002) and a longitudinal study (Sherman et al, 2009) have shown that parents' implicit cognitions about general smoking are related to their offspring's smoking behavior. Sherman et al (2009) observed that the degree to which mothers had a positive implicit attitude toward smoking was predictive of smoking initiation in their offspring 18 months later, via adolescents' positive implicit attitudes about smoking.…”

“…A cross-sectional (Chassin et al, 2002) and a longitudinal study (Sherman et al, 2009) have shown that parents' implicit cognitions about general smoking are related to their offspring's smoking behavior. Sherman et al (2009) observed that the degree to which mothers had a positive implicit attitude toward smoking was predictive of smoking initiation in their offspring 18 months later, via adolescents' positive implicit attitudes about smoking. These studies underscore the added value of taking into account implicit parental cognitions when trying to predict substance use in adolescents.…”

“…It must be pointed out, however, that neither Chassin et al (2002) or Sherman et al (2009) focused on the role of automatic parenting processes (i.e., implicit cognitions and behaviors related to substance use by one's own children). For two reasons, we expect that such an approach would deepen the understanding of drinking behavior in adolescents.…”

“…Third, we investigated whether the relation between automatic parenting processes and adolescents' alcohol use is moderated by the degree to which the parents themselves consume alcohol. Drawing on the findings of Sherman et al (2009), who showed that positive implicit parental smoking cognitions relate to more parental smoking, it is expected that more strict automatic parenting processes predict lower levels of adolescents' alcohol use particularly when parents' own alcohol use is low (H3).…”