Cigarette Smoking Among High School Students Related to Social Class and Parental Smoking Habits

Abstract

Among students at the Senior High School, Newton, Massachusetts, 2823 answered a questionnaire including among other items the students'' past and current smoking habits, current smoking habits of the parents, and fathers'' occupations. The proportion of students who were currently regular smokers, and particularly of those who smoked one pack of cigarettes or more per week, increased with decreasing social class as measured by fathers'' occupation. This trend was seen for both male and female students. The proportion of fathers who were reported as regular smokers showed a similar relationship to social class, but the proportion of mothers who were smokers did not vary by social class. The proportion of students who were smokers, and particularly who were heavy smokers, was high in families where both parents were regular smokers (51% and 13%, respectively) and low in families where neither parent smoked (25% and 4%). Student smoking in families in which only one parent smoked was intermediate in frequency between these extremes; it did not appear to be significantly related to sex, either of the student or of the parent. These 2 associations were independent. That is, social class and parental smoking habits were each related to student smoking habits when the other was held constant.