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Are you more likely to smoke cigarettes if your parents do?
Twelve-year-olds whose parents smoked were more than two times as likely to begin smoking cigarettes on a daily basis between the ages of 13 and 21 than were children whose parents didn’t use tobacco, according to a new study that looked at family influences on smoking habits.
How does family influence smoking?
The development of nicotine dependence and smoking habit is linked to social influence from family and friends. 3–6 Children who are exposed to smoking at home are more likely to experiment with smoking. 7 ,8 A smoking parent makes an adolescent more positively disposed to smoking.
What happens when a parent smokes?
The more a parent smokes, the more their teenage son or daughter will also smoke. Teenagers are much more likely to smoke and be dependent on nicotine if a parent is dependent on nicotine, especially daughters if their mother is dependent on nicotine.
How does parental nicotine dependence affect teen tobacco use?
Overall, teens had three times the odds of smoking at least one cigarette, and nearly twice the odds of nicotine dependence, if their parent was dependent on nicotine. Daughters were almost four times as likely to be dependent on nicotine when their mothers were dependent on nicotine but were not affected by fathers’ nicotine dependence.
Do teens imitate their parents’ smoking habits?
The fact that adolescent smoking was more strongly affected by parents who were current smokers than by parents who had quit, the authors write, suggests a role-modeling effect. In other words, teens imitate their parents.
Did MJM ever tell his parents about his smoking?
MJM, who actually never DID tell his parents about his smoking… and, sadly, had that carry over to his keeping a lot of other things from them as well. Question: “Why do some parents allow their children to smoke cigarettes?”