Anti-tobacco socialization in homes of African-American and white parents, and smoking and nonsmoking parents.
OBJECTIVE
To examine parental perceptions and behaviors with regard to teen smoking, comparing African-American and white parents, and those who did and did not smoke.


METHODS
Focus groups consisting of African-American and white parents who smoked provided initial in-depth information. A computer-assisted telephone survey of a biracial sample of 311 parents of children ages 8 to 17 years provided more generalizable information regarding parental beliefs and behaviors.


RESULTS
Nearly 50% of households either allowed teen smoking, had no ground rules, or had set restrictive rules but never communicated them to the children. Compared to white parents, African-American parents felt more empowered to affect their children's behaviors and were more likely to actively participate in anti-tobacco socialization within the home (all p values < 0.01). Among the African-American parents, 98% reported 18 years or older to be an appropriate age for teens to make up their own minds about using tobacco, whereas 26% of white parents thought 16 years to be an appropriate age (p < 0.001). Parents who smoked reported more frequent rule-making than those who did not smoke (p = 0.02), but were more likely to believe that childhood tobacco use is inevitable (p = 0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
Many parents are not engaged in antitobacco socialization in the home. Differences in the degree of parental participation may contribute to the variance in smoking prevalence between African-American and white children.
Clark
P I
PI
Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, Rootstown 44272, USA.
Scarisbrick-Hauser
A
A
Gautam
S P
SP
Wirk
S J
SJ
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D005192:Family Health / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009820:Ohio / Q000453:epidemiology; D016487:Parenting / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D012951:Socialization; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data