Parenting Style and Smoking-Specific Parenting Practices as Predictors of Adolescent Smoking Onset

Abstract

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.