Parental tobacco smoking behaviour and their children’s smoking and cessation in adulthood

Abstract

To examine the extent to which childhood exposure to parental tobacco smoking, smoking cessation and parental disapproval of smoking predicts daily smoking and attempts to quit in adulthood. A longitudinal prospective design was used to examine the possible association between parental smoking variables in childhood and adolescence and subsequent smoking and cessation by age 26 years. Interview data were collected as part of a longitudinal study of some 950 individuals followed from birth to age 26 years. Outcome measures were daily smoking and self-reported attempts to quit smoking. Less daily smoking among the participants at age 26 was related more strongly to parental smoking cessation in the adolescent years than the childhood years. By contrast, inconsistent advice about smoking in childhood and adolescence predicted later daily smoking. Cessation attempts to age 26 were unrelated to earlier parental quitting but were related to consistent advice in adolescence from both parents about smoking. Encouraging parents to voice consistent messages about their disapproval of smoking has a significant role to play in discouraging smoking in their adult children and promoting attempt to quit where their children are smokers.