Parenting style and smoking-specific parenting practices as predictors of adolescent smoking onset.
OBJECTIVE
To test whether parenting style and smoking-specific parenting practices prospectively predicted adolescent smoking.


METHODS
Three hundred eighty-two adolescents (age 10-17 years, initial nonsmokers, 98% non-Hispanic whites) and their parents were interviewed, with smoking also assessed 1-2 years later.


RESULTS
Adolescents from disengaged families (low acceptance and low behavioral control) were most likely to initiate smoking. Adolescents' reports of parents' smoking-related discussion was related to lowered smoking risk for adolescents with nonsmoking parents, but unrelated to smoking onset for adolescents with smoking parents. Smoking-specific parenting practices did not account for the effects of general parenting styles.


CONCLUSIONS
Both parenting style and smoking-specific parenting practices have unique effects on adolescent smoking, although effects were largely confined to adolescents' reports; and for smoking-specific parenting practices, effects were confined to families with nonsmoking parents. Interventions that focus only on smoking-specific parenting practices may be insufficient to deter adolescent smoking.
Chassin
Laurie
L
Department of Psychology, PO Box 871104, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-1104, USA. Laurie.chassin@asu.edu
Presson
Clark C
CC
Rose
Jennifer
J
Sherman
Steven J
SJ
Davis
Matthew J
MJ
Gonzalez
Jeremy L
JL
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology