Elsevier

Journal of Adolescent Health

Volume 37, Issue 3, September 2005, Pages 202-210
Journal of Adolescent Health

Original article
Family influences on the risk of daily smoking initiation

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2004.08.014Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

To examine developmental patterns and family influences on the risk of daily smoking initiation from adolescence to young adulthood.

Method

A gender-balanced, ethnically diverse urban sample of 808 children aged 10–11 years was surveyed in 1985 and followed prospectively to age 21 in 1996. Discrete-time survival analysis was used to assess the hazard of initiation of daily smoking during this time period, as well as the effects of family factors on the risk of daily smoking initiation.

Results

Less parental smoking, more strict family monitoring and rules, and stronger family bonding predicted a significantly lower risk of daily smoking initiation controlling for socio-demographic background. The decline in the impact of family bonding over time was marginally significant; however, none of the interactions between family factors and time were significant, indicating generally consistent family influences on daily smoking from age 10 to 21.

Conclusions

The present findings indicate that parent smoking contributes to the onset of daily smoking in their teenagers even if parents practice good family management, hold norms against teen tobacco use, and do not involve their children in their own tobacco use. Smoking prevention programs should include components focused on parents of adolescents. To reduce risks for daily smoking among adolescents, it is important to encourage parents to stop or reduce their own smoking. In addition, these data indicate that parents can reduce their children’s risk of daily smoking initiation by reducing family conflict, by maintaining strong bonds with their children, by setting clear rules, and by closely monitoring their children’s behaviors.

Section snippets

Participants

The participants in this study were 808 individuals who participated in the Seattle Social Development Project (SSDP), a longitudinal study of the development of positive and antisocial behaviors. These participants were recruited in the fall of 1985 from all fifth-grade students attending 18 Seattle elementary schools serving high-crime neighborhoods (N = 1053). Of these students, 808 (77%) consented to take part in the study. Of the 808 students, 412 (51%) were male; 372 (46%) were white, 195

Prevalence and risk of daily smoking initiation

A total of 14.9% of SSDP participants reported having smoked cigarettes daily in the past 30 days at age 16 in the 1991 survey, and this prevalence increased to 21.6% at age 18 in the 1993 survey. These prevalences in this urban multiethnic sample were slightly higher than the corresponding national prevalences in the Monitoring the Future study in the same time periods. For example, nationally, 12.6% of 10th graders (about age 16) in 1991, and 19.0% of 12th graders (about age 18) in 1993

Discussion

This study demonstrates that family factors matter in predicting the onset of daily smoking in adolescence. In this sample, they mattered early in adolescence, at age 14–15, and continued in importance as a predictor of daily smoking initiation throughout adolescence. Only bonding to parents declined in significance as a predictor in late adolescence.

Social development theory suggests that family factors play an important role in the initiation and escalation of smoking in adolescence. Few

Acknowledgment

This research was supported by grants #R01DA09679 and #R01DA012138 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. We gratefully acknowledge the SDRG data collection team, as well as Tanya Williams for her help in editing this manuscript.

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