Abstract
BackgroundParental bonding has been implicated in smoking behavior, and the quality of maternal bonding (MB) has been associated with poor mental health and substance use. However, little is known about the association of MB and the smoking of the offspring.MethodsIn our study, 129 smokers and 610 non-smoker medical students completed the parental bonding instrument, which measures MB along two dimensions: care and overprotection. Four categories can be created by high and low scores on care and overprotection: optimal parenting (OP; high care/low overprotection); affectionless control (ALC; low care/high overprotection); affectionate constraint (AC; high care/high overprotection), and neglectful parenting (NP; low care/low overprotection). Nicotine dependence was assessed by the Fagerstrom Nicotine Dependence Test, exhaled CO level, and daily cigarette consumption (CPD).ResultsHigher CPD was significantly associated with lower overprotection (p = 0.016) and higher care (p = 0.023) scores. The odds for being a smoker were significantly higher in the neglectful maternal bonding style compared to the other rearing styles (p = 0.022). Besides, smokers showed significantly higher care and lower overprotection scores with the Mann–Whitney U-test than non-smokers, although these associations did not remain significant in multiple regression models.ConclusionOur results indicate that focusing on early life relationship between patient and mother can be important in psychotherapeutic interventions for smoking. Registration trials retrospectively registered
Highlights
Parental bonding has been implicated in smoking behavior, and the quality of maternal bonding (MB) has been associated with poor mental health and substance use
Our findings confirmed that neglectful maternal bonding style has an important effect on whether an individual becomes a smoker, but it has no effect on smoking quantity or the level of nicotine dependence
In conclusion, our data confirmed the importance of the maternal behavior in the development of smoking
Summary
Parental bonding has been implicated in smoking behavior, and the quality of maternal bonding (MB) has been associated with poor mental health and substance use. Little is known about the association of MB and the smoking of the offspring. The majority of studies on the effect of the smoker’s parents on their tobacco use focused on the parents’ smoking behavior, the parent’s beneficial attitudes toward smoking, and parental practices against smoking. Those studies found that all these factors are related to the offspring’s smoking outcomes [5,6,7]. Less is known about the effect of parental bonding and attachment, and even less about the effect of maternal parenting style
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