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Can home smoking restrictions influence adolescents' smoking behaviors if their parents and friends smoke?

journal contribution
posted on 2006-12-01, 00:00 authored by E Szabo, Vicki WhiteVicki White, J Hayman
Research suggests that the presence of a total ban on smoking in the home is associated with a reduced likelihood of tobacco experimentation among adolescents. While the influence of parental smoking on this association is examined in this work, no study has examined the influence of friends' smoking behavior. In this study, we use data from a statewide survey of students (n=4125) from the Australian State of Victoria to examine the association between home smoking bans and stage of smoking uptake after controlling for parental smoking and smoking among friends. Logistic regression revealed that students residing in homes with a total ban on smoking were least likely to be susceptible to smoking or to have experimented with smoking. While there was an interaction between parental smoking status and home bans on smoking uptake stage, indicating that the effect of home bans was strongest when neither parent smoked, there was no interaction between home bans and friends' smoking. The results suggest that home smoking bans reduce the likelihood of an adolescent trying tobacco regardless of their friends' smoking behavior. By adopting strong home smoking bans, parents can reduce some of the influence friends' smoking can have on the smoking behavior of their adolescent.

History

Journal

Addictive behaviors

Volume

31

Issue

12

Pagination

2298 - 2303

Publisher

Elsevier

Location

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

ISSN

0306-4603

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2006, Elsevier