Parenting style and adolescent smoking

doi:10.1016/S1054-139X(02)00370-1

Journal of Adolescent Health

Volume 30, Issue 6, June 2002, Pages 418-425

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1054-139X(02)00370-1 Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate whether parenting style is an independent risk factor of smoking initiation and experimentation among adolescents, and whether there is a relationship between parenting style and readiness to quit, or nicotine dependence among smokers.

Methods: The 84-item Health and Smoking Questionnaire, which assesses demographics, smoking status and smoking history, perceptions of risk and risk reduction, risk factors for tobacco use, and parenting style, was administered to 816 adolescents in grades 7 to 12 (mean age, 15.1 years) of whom 22.6% (n = 182) were smokers. Parenting style was measured by the brief, nonretrospective version of the Family of Origin Scale (FOS). Higher scores on the FOS indicated more positive perceived parenting style with high levels of intimacy and autonomy, characteristics of healthy parent-child relationships. Data were analyzed using a model-building approach to logistic regression with demographic and other psychosocial variables in the first two steps, and with parenting style as the last step.

Results: Results from two logistic regression models indicate that although parenting style is not a significant risk factor for smoking experimentation [odds ratio (OR) = .998; confidence interval (CI) = .977–1.019; p = .820], it is a significant independent risk factor for smoking initiation (OR = .950; CI = .930–.970; p = .000). Smokers who were more ready to quit had higher parenting style scores than those who were not ready to quit, and smokers who had made a serious quit attempt (an indicator of nicotine addiction) had higher parenting style scores than those who had not made a quit attempt. Moreover, nonsmokers who reported they would smoke a cigarette if their best friend offered had significantly lower parenting style scores than those who reported they would not smoke a cigarette.

Conclusions: Additional research on parenting style and its impact on adolescent smoking with a more economically and ethnically diverse sample is warranted. If future research confirms the strength of the relationship between parenting style and adolescent smoking, teaching positive parenting, including facilitating intimate yet autonomous relationships, may be considered as part of smoking prevention and cessation programs.

Section snippets

Subjects

Participants in this study were 838 adolescents from two high schools and two junior high schools in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Of the original sample of 838 participants, 15 questionnaires were not used because of incomplete data (adolescents were informed that they could refuse to answer the questionnaire), and seven were not used because they were missing three or more items on a relevant scale. Thus, our final sample included 816 participants, of whom 22.6% were smokers. Table 1

Smoking experimentation and initiation

Table 2 presents the multivariate logistic regression model predicting individuals who experimented with smoking (n = 190, 23.5%). None of the demographic variables significantly predicted experimentation with cigarettes. Among established risk factors identified in the univariate analyses, participants having a high percentage of friends who smoke were more likely to experiment with smoking, as were participants who had lower grade point averages (GPAs). Rebelliousness and reported alcohol

Discussion

The present study examined parenting style as a possible independent risk factor for adolescent smoking experimentation and initiation. Results indicated that parenting style was a significant risk factor for smoking initiation, but not a significant risk factor for smoking experimentation. The differential impact of parenting style on smoking experimentation versus initiation is not surprising as past research has documented that the relative influence of various psychosocial and environmental

Acknowledgements

This study was funded by a Kemper Doctoral Fellowship from the University of Missouri-Kansas City awarded to Kristin Koetting O’Byrne. We are grateful to Tamera B. Murdock, Ph.D., for her insightful feedback in the early conceptualization of this study.

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Original articleParenting style and adolescent smoking

Abstract

Section snippets

Subjects

Smoking experimentation and initiation

Discussion

Acknowledgements

Am J Prev Med

Addict Behav

Behav Res Ther

J Adolesc Health

Addict Behav

Prev Med

Youth tobacco surveillance survey—United States, 2000

MMWR CDC Surveill Summ

Actual causes of death in the United States

JAMA

Epidemiology of tobacco use among US adolescents

Nicotine Tob Res

Projected smoking related deaths among youth—United States

MMWR

The relationship between adolescent smoking and drinking and likelihood estimates of illicit drug use

J Addict Dis

Preventing tobacco use among young peopleA report of the surgeon general, 1994

Growing Up Tobacco Free

Parental influence on early adolescent substance useSpecific and nonspecific effects

J Early Adolesc

An ecological analysis of peer influence on adolescent grade point average and drug use

Dev Psychol

Parenting practices and peer group affiliation in adolescence

Child Dev

Over-time changes in adjustment and competence among adolescents from authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, and neglectful families

Child Dev

Family functioning and parental smoking as predictors of adolescent cigarette useA six-year prospective study

J Fam Psychol

Assessing outcome in smoking cessation studies

Psychol Bull

Original article
Parenting style and adolescent smoking