Contribution of parental and school personnel smoking to health risk behaviours among Finnish adolescents

Marianna Virtanen,Minna Pietikäinen,Pauliina Luopa,Mika Kivimäki,Jussi Vahtera,Jukka Jokela,Marko Elovainio

doi:10.1186/1471-2458-9-382

Abstract

BackgroundThis study compared parental smoking with school personnel smoking in relation to adolescents' smoking behaviours, alcohol use, and illicit drug use.MethodsA cross-sectional survey for 24,379 adolescents was linked to a survey for 1946 school employees in 136 Finnish schools in 2004-2005. Surveys included smoking prevalence reported by school staff, adolescents' reports of school staff and parental smoking, adolescents' own smoking behaviours, alcohol use, and illicit drug use. Multilevel analyses were adjusted for individual and school-level confounding factors.ResultsParental smoking was associated with all health risk behaviours among both sexes (risk range 1.39 to 1.95 for other outcomes; Odds Ratio OR for smoking cessation 0.64, 95% Confidence Interval CI: 0.57, 0.72 among boys, 0.72; 0.64, 0.81 among girls). Among boys, high vs. low smoking prevalence among school personnel was associated with higher probability of smoking (OR 1.19; 95% CI 1.01,1.41), higher frequency of smoking during school time (Cumulative Odds Ratio COR 1.81; 95% CI 1.32, 2.48), frequent alcohol use (OR 1.23; 95% CI 1.01, 1.50), illicit drug use (OR 1.40; 95% CI 1.16, 1.69), and higher odds of reporting adults smoking at school (COR 1.51; 95% CI 1.09, 2.09). Among girls, high smoking prevalence among school personnel was related to higher odds of smoking (OR 1.18; 95% CI 1.02, 1.37) and lower odds of smoking cessation (OR 0.84; 95% CI 0.72, 0.99).ConclusionParental smoking and school personnel smoking are both associated with adolescents' health risk behaviours but the association of parental smoking seems to be stronger.

Highlights

This study compared parental smoking with school personnel smoking in relation to adolescents' smoking behaviours, alcohol use, and illicit drug use
Parental smoking and school personnel smoking are both associated with adolescents' health risk behaviours but the association of parental smoking seems to be stronger
We examined the contribution of two significant adult groups affecting adolescent development; i.e. the extent to which parental smoking and school personnel smoking are associated with adolescents' health risk behaviours

Summary

Introduction

This study compared parental smoking with school personnel smoking in relation to adolescents' smoking behaviours, alcohol use, and illicit drug use. Unhealthy lifestyle among adolescents is a globally growing concern and there is an increasing awareness that social environment has an effect on adolescent health behaviours [1,2]. Several studies on school personnel have focussed on smoking behaviour [1,13,14,15,16,17,18]. No association was found between teachers' and pupils' smoking in three ecological studies [13,14,15]. A further study applied multilevel analysis [18] and reported a mixed pattern of non-significant associations between teachers' and pupils' smoking behaviours. Between-school variance in alcohol and cannabis use has been reported [19,20]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion