The family atmosphere - growing up in smoke

Abstract

THIS is a first descriptive account of UK children's reports of their experiences as passive smokers in their own homes. The subjects were 658 children aged 10 to 14 years from three contrasting school catchment areas. The children completed a multiple- choice questionnaire exploring the smoking behaviour of their families, their own smoking behaviour, and their attitudes to other people smok ing in their homes and in public places. It included an open question "How do you feel about other people smoking?". Results revealed that the majority of chil dren were exposed to at least one person smoking in their homes, that exposure to passive smoking varied enormously with school catchement area, and that in general children objected strongly to other people smoking. The presence of a family member who smoked proved a powerful indicator of the children's own smoking behaviour and their attitudes to other people smoking, but further correlations and log- linear modelling revealed differential effects of mother's and father's smoking behaviour. Impli cations for intervention programmes are discussed.