Association of parent and best friend smoking with stage of adolescent tobacco smoking
Robert Scragg, Marewa Glover, Janine Paynter, Grace Wong, Judith McCool
We found in a large survey of Year 10 (4th form) students during 2002-2006 that smoking by best friend and parents, collectively, explain a high proportion of current Year 10 students who smoke tobacco daily (79%). In contrast, neither parental nor peer-smoking were related to smoking susceptibility among adolescent non-smokers, which suggests other factors, such as risk taking, family conflict or low self-esteem, may be involved in the progression to smoking once children reach adolescence. Given evidence showing the limited success of school-based interventions against the effects of peer-smoking, our findings support efforts to prevent youth tobacco smoking by targeting parents who smoke, particularly before their children reach the teenage years. This may have a double benefit of reducing both adult and adolescent smoking.