Abstract
Smoking is harmful to the health of adolescents because their bodies are still growing. The aim of this study was to analyze the association between the smoking status of Korean adolescents’ parents and friends and their own smoking behavior. The study assessed a nationwide sample of 72,060 middle and high students from the 10th Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (2014). Descriptive analysis, chi-square tests, and multiple logistic regression analysis were used to probe the association between family and friend smoking status and adolescent smoking behavior. The current cigarette smoking rates were 13.3% of boys and 4.1% of girls. The corresponding rates for electronic cigarette smoking were 4.1% and 1.5%, respectively. Higher exposure to secondhand smoke, smoking by any family member, more friends smoking, and witnessed smoking at school were associated with current smoking and electronic smoking. The smoking status of family and friends was significantly related to adolescent smoking behavior. These results should be considered in designing programs to control adolescent smoking.
Highlights
Smoking increases rates of disease and premature death [1]
The highest smoking rate was noted for fathers
Intentions to smoke and smoking-related attitudes were influenced by family and friend smoking status [22] and family structure affected the adolescents smoking stages [23]. These findings demonstrate that family smoking is a crucial factor that affects adolescent smoking behavior
Summary
Smoking increases rates of disease and premature death [1]. 22% of 8th graders and 46% of 12th graders tried smoking despite considerable U.S public health efforts to prevent adolescent smoking [2]. In Korea, in 2013, the prevalence of cigarette smoking was greater among boys (14.4%) than girls (4.6%) in middle and high school, and prevalence of current cigarette smoking among adolescent males was greater than the Health Plan 2020 target of 12.0% [3]. Smoking can be especially damaging to the health of adolescents because their bodies are still developing; exposure to nicotine, tar, carbon monoxide, and other carcinogens triggers the development of chronic diseases and causes greater cell and tissue damage than they would in adults [4]. Age smoking may lead to other delinquencies such as substance use, dropping out of school, sexual risk taking, and violence [5]
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