This study was funded by EC BIOMED II grant BMH4-CT98- 3721, Transnational variation in prevalence of adolescent smoking: the role of national tobacco policies and the school and family environments.Publisher PD

Currie, Candace

Griesbach, D

English

This study was funded by EC BIOMED II grant BMH4-CT98- 3721, Transnational variation in prevalence of adolescent smoking: the role of national tobacco policies and the school and family environments

St Andrews Research Repository

C A S FACT SHEET 6 April 2001news from the international study CONTROL OF ADOLESCENT SMOKING IntroductionOver the last two decades, a great deal of research on smokingamong young people has focused on the social and familialfactors associated with smoking initiation and habitual smoking.These factors can be thought of as the influence of family andfriends, and the smoking behaviours of these “significantothers” has been shown in a number of studies to be stronglyrelated not only to the smoking behaviour of adolescents, butalso to their attitudes and beliefs about smoking.1, 2This report will present findings on the relationshipbetween parental smoking (both mothers and fathers) andadolescent smoking.  Results will also show the way in whichsmoking among 15-year-old Scottish adolescents is related totheir perceptions of what their parents think about smoking, andwhether they care what their parents think.  Data were gatheredfrom a nationally representative sample of 15-year-old Scottishsecondary school students as part of the EC-funded Control ofAdolescent Smoking (CAS) study.In the tables and graphs shown below, daily smokers arethose adolescents who reported smoking every day; occasionalsmokers are those who reported smoking less often than everyday; and non-smokers are those who said they did not smoke.Parental smokingTable 1 shows that there was a highly significant associationbetween parental smoking and smoking among Scottish 15-year-olds in 1998.  Of those young people who reported having anon-smoking father, only 16.2% were themselves daily smokers.This percentage doubled to 31.0% if their father smoked daily (p < 0.001).  Similarly, only 17.4% of adolescents with a non-smoking mother were daily smokers, but this percentageincreased to 30.9% among adolescents whose mothers smoked daily (p < 0.001).Parental influences on smokingamong Scottish adolescentsDawn Griesbach and Candace CurrieThis report examines smoking among Scottish adolescents and their parents.  The relationship between parentalattitudes towards smoking their children’s smoking is also explored.  The data were collected in 1998 from asample of 1,724 fifteen-year-old Scottish secondary school students, as part of the EC-funded project, Control of Adolescent Smoking (CAS).~ Highly significant associations were found between parental smoking and adolescent smoking.~ A highly significant association was found between adolescent smoking (both boys and girls) and the numberof smoking parents a young person had.  Daily smoking prevalence was highest among both boys and girls ifthey had two parents who smoked, and lowest among both boys and girls if they had no smoking parents. ~ A highly significant association was found between adolescent smoking status and adolescents’ perceptionsof their parents’ approval or disapproval of their smoking.  Smokers were more likely than non-smokers tobelieve their parents would not mind if they smoked in two years time.~ A highly significant association was found between adolescent smoking status and whether or not theadolescent cared what their parents thought about their smoking.  Smokers were less likely than non-smokers to care about what their parents think about their smoking.C A S FACT SHEET 6 April 2001There was also a highly significant association between theyoung person’s smoking status and the number of smokingparents the young person had (p < 0.001).  This was so for bothboys and girls (See Figure 1).  Only 13.9% of boys and 15.7% ofgirls with no smoking parents were daily smokers themselves.However, these percentages increased to 29.0% of boys and38.8% of girls with two smoking parents.  Girls were significantlymore likely to be daily smokers if one of their parents smokedthan if neither parent smoked (p < 0.01), and significantly morelikely again to be daily smokers if they had two smoking parentsthan if they had only one parent who smoked (p < 0.01).  Boyswere also significantly more likely to smoke if they had onesmoking parent than if they had no smoking parents (p < 0.05).However, there was no significant difference in daily smokingbetween boys with one smoking parent or two smoking parents.These classifications are based on adolescents’ responses tothe questions, “Does your father smoke?” and “Does your mothersmoke?”  Responses to these questions were not dependent onwhether the adolescent lived with their father or mother.Perceptions of parental attitudes towards smokingTable 2 shows the relationship between the young person’ssmoking status and their own perceptions of what their parentswould think if they smoked in two years time.  Smokers weresignificantly more likely than non-smokers to believe that theirparents would not mind if they smoked in two years (p < 0.001).For example, only 8.6% of non-smokers thought their fatherwould not mind if they smoked in two years, while 11.3% ofoccasional smokers and 30.0% of daily smokers said the same.Similar patterns were found when young people were askedwhether their mother would mind if they smoked (p < 0.001).Table 3, on the back page, shows that female occasionaland daily smokers were significantly more likely than malesmokers to think that their fathers would mind if they smoked intwo years (p < 0.001), but there was no significant differencebetween male and female smokers in whether they thought theirmothers would mind.Table 4 shows the relationship between the young person’ssmoking status and whether or not they cared what theirparents thought about their smoking.  While there was nosignificant difference between boys and girls in their attitudestowards what their parents thought about smoking, there was adifference between smokers and non-smokers.  Smokers weresignificantly less likely than non-smokers to care about whattheir parents thought about their smoking (p < 0.001).  Only11.9% of non-smokers reported not caring what their parentsthought about smoking, compared to 20.4% of occasionalsmokers, and 35.8% of daily smokers.The significant association between adolescent smokingand perceptions of parental disapproval may partly be explainedTable 1: Association between parental smoking status, as reported by adolescent, and adolescent’s own smoking status.Father’s smoking status (%) Mother’s smoking status (%)Non- Occas Daily  Non- Occas DailyAdolescent smoking status smoker smoker smoker smoker smoker smokerMalesNon-smoker/occas. smoker† 86.2 76.3 72.1  82.7 87.8 75.9Daily smoker  13.8 23.7 27.9  17.3 12.2 24.1  Total (n)  (464) (59) (233)  (510) (41) (232)  Significance (p) *** *  FemalesNon-smoker/occas. smoker† 81.7  76.4 66.3  82.5 76.7 63.6  Daily smoker  18.3 23.6  33.7  17.5 23.3 36.4  Total (n)  (519) (55) (267)  (567) (43) (280)  Significance (p) ***  *** TotalNon-smoker/occas. smoker† 83.8 76.3 69.0  82.6 82.1 69.1  Daily smoker  16.2 23.7 31.0  17.4 17.9 30.9  Total (n)  (983) (114) (500)  (1077) (84) (512)  Significance (p) ***  *** † Because of the small numbers of occasional smokers in some categories, adolescent occasional smokers have been classified together withnon-smokers and compared to daily smokers.* – p < 0.05;  *** – p < 0.001.C A S FACT SHEET 6 April 2001by the association between adolescent smoking and the smokingstatus of the adolescents’ parents.  In other words, youngpeople with parents who smoked may be more likely to thinkthat their parents won’t disapprove of their smoking.  In fact, theassociation between parental smoking and adolescents’perceptions of their parents’ disapproval was highly significant.However, multivariate analysis showed that, even after takinginto account parental smoking status and whether or not theyoung person cared what their parents thought, adolescentswho believed that their parents didn’t mind about their smokingwere at greatest risk of being daily smokers.References1. Flay BR, Hu FB, Siddiqui O, Day LE, Hedeker D, Petraitis J,Richardson J and Sussman S (1994)  Differential influence of parentalsmoking and friends’ smoking on adolescent initiation and escalationof smoking. Journal of Health and Social Behaviour, 35: 248-265.2. Biglan A, Duncan TE, Ary DV, Smolkowski K (1995)  Peer andparental influences on adolescent tobacco use.  Journal of BehavioralMedicine, 18(4): 315-330.Figure 1: Association between adolescent smoking status and number of smoking parentsTable 2: Association between adolescent smoking status and perceptions of parental disapproval of the adolescent’s futuresmoking behaviourSmoking status of adolescent (%)Male Female TotalAdolescent’s perception of Non- Occas. Daily  Non- Occas. Daily  Non- Occas. Daily parental disapproval smokers smokers smokers smokers smokers smokers smokers smokers smokersDo you think your father would mindif you smoke two years from now?Yes  89.3 79.6 62.9 93.5 94.3 75.0 91.4 88.7 70.0  No 10.7 20.4 37.1 6.5 5.7 25.0 8.6 11.3 30.0  Total (n)  (572) (54) (143)  (550) (87) (204)  (1122) (141) (347)  Significance (p) ***  *** *** Do you think your mother would mind? Yes 91.1  85.7 71.4 94.1  88.9 71.8 92.6 87.7 71.7 No 8.9  14.3 28.6  5.9  11.1 28.2 7.4 12.3 28.3 Total (n)  (584) (56) (154)  (595) (90) (213)  (1179) (146) (367) Significance (p)   ***  *** ****** – p < 0.0010102030405060708090100Daily smokerNon-smoker/occas smokerTwo parents smokeOne parent smokesNo smoking parentsBoys0102030405060708090100Daily smokerNon-smoker/occas. smokerTwo parents smokeOne parents smokesNo smoking parentsGirlsBecause of the small numbers of occasional smokers in some categories, occasional smokers have been categorised together with non-smokersand compared to daily smokers.Percentage of boysPercentage of girlsDesigned and produced for CAHRU by Susan Halcro, VisualResources, The University of Edinburgh.CreditsThis report is taken from a larger report entitled, Control ofAdolescent Smoking in Scotland.  The full report is availablefrom CAHRU at the address shown at right.This study was funded by EC BIOMED II grant BMH4-CT98-3721, Transnational variation in prevalence of adolescentsmoking: the role of national tobacco policies and the schooland family environments.  Short title: Control of AdolescentSmoking (CAS). Participating countries/regions included Austria,French-speaking Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the German stateof North Rhine-Westphalia, Norway, Scotland and Wales.  Thestudy was co-ordinated by the Scottish team, Candace Currieand Dawn Griesbach, at the University of Edinburgh.  Datacollection in Scotland was funded by the Health Education Boardfor Scotland (HEBS) under the auspices of the Scottishcomponent of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children: aWHO Cross-National Study (HBSC).  The opinions expressed inthis report are those of the authors and not the funders.Further information about the CAS study isavailable from the project co-ordinator:Dr Candace CurrieChild & Adolescent Health Research Unit (CAHRU)Department of PE, Sport and Leisure StudiesUniversity of EdinburghWeir’s Land, Holyrood RoadEdinburgh EH8 8AQTel: +44 131 651 6272Email: Candace.Currie@ed.ac.ukC A S FACT SHEET 6 April 2001Table 4: Association between adolescent smoking status and whether the adolescent cares what their parents think about their smokingSmoking status of adolescent (%)Male Female TotalNon- Occas. Daily  Non- Occas. Daily  Non- Occas. Daily smokers smokers smokers smokers smokers smokers smokers smokers smokersWill you care (in 2 years time) what your father thinks (about your smoking)? Yes  89.6  76.4 60.7  86.5 81.6 66.7  88.1 79.6 64.2 No 10.4 23.6 39.3 13.5 18.4  33.3  11.9  20.4  35.8 Total (n)  (577) (55) (145)  (563) (87) (210)  (1140) (142) (355) Significance (p) ***  ***  ***  Will you care what your mother thinks? Yes  91.8 82.1 71.0 92.8  86.8 77.0   92.3 85.0  74.5 No  8.2 17.9 29.0  7.2 13.2 23.0  7.7 15.0 25.5 Total (n)  (585) (56) (155)  (596) (91) (213)  (1181) (147) (368)Significance (p) ***  ***  *** *** - p < 0.001Table 3: Association between gender and perceptions of parental disapproval among occasional and daily smokers.Adolescent’s perception of parental disapproval Male (%) Female (%) Do you think your father would mind if you smoke two years from now? Yes  67.5 80.8  No  32.5 19.2  Total (n)  (197) (291)Significance (p)  *** Do you think your mother would mind? Yes 75.2 76.9 No  24.8 23.1 Total (n)  (210) (303) Significance (p)  n.s. *** – p < 0.001

News from the international study Control of Adolescent Smoking : Parental influences on smoking among Scottish adolescents

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