Parent educational attainment and adolescent cigarette smoking

doi:10.1016/0899-3289(92)90031-R

Journal of Substance Abuse

Volume 4, Issue 3, 1992, Pages 219-234

https://doi.org/10.1016/0899-3289(92)90031-R Get rights and content

Abstract

In a longitudinal design, this study examined psychosocial mediators of the effects of parental educational attainment on adolescent smoking acquisition and also examined whether smoking transition had different antecedents among adolescents from families of varying educational backgrounds. Parents' low educational attainment acted as a moderate to strong risk factor for the initial onset of smoking among middle school girls. Some of this effect was mediated by the higher smoking prevalence among both parents and friends of these adolescent girls, as well as by their lowered expectations for academic success. However, these variables only partially mediated the effect of parent education. There were few indications of differential antecedents of smoking acquisition among adolescents from less and more highly educated families. Implications for public health antismoking campaigns are discussed.

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Citation Excerpt :
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It is well known that female educational accessibility has increased in recent decades in the UK and internationally (Gakidou, Cowling, Lozano, et al., 2010), and cigarette use is inversely correlated with years of education in adults (Giskes et al., 2005). Furthermore, parental education is a consistent predictor of child smoking initiation (Chassin, Presson, Sherman, et al., 1992; Conrad, Flay, & Hill, 1992; Green et al., 2016; Hiscock, Bauld, Amos, et al., 2012; Kandel, Griesler, & Hu, 2015; Staff J, Maggs, Cundiff, and Evans-Polce, 2016; Taylor-Robinson, Wickham, Campbell, et al., 2017). Thus, the risk of youth smoking may have declined partly due to historic increases in maternal education.
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^☆: This research was supported by Grant HD13449 to the first three authors from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

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Research reportParent educational attainment and adolescent cigarette smoking☆

Abstract

Public Health

Journal of Substance Abuse

The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Parent characteristics, perceived health risk, and smokeless tobacco use among white adolescent males

National Cancer Institute Monographs

Predicting adolescents' intentions to smoke cigarettes

Journal of Health and Social Behavior

Predicting the onset of smoking in adolescents: A longitudinal study

Journal of Applied Social Psychology

The natural history of cigarette smoking: Predicting young adult smoking outcomes from adolescent smoking patterns

Health Psychology

Changes in peer and parent influence during adolescence: Longitudinal versus cross-sectional perspectives on smoking initiation

Developmental Psychology

Increasing the validity of self-reports of behavior in a smoking-in-children investigation

Journal of Applied Psychology

Research report
Parent educational attainment and adolescent cigarette smoking☆