Communication about smoking in Dutch families: associations between anti-smoking socialization and adolescent smoking-related cognitions.

Publisher: Oxford University Press Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 8608459 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Print ISSN: 0268-1153 (Print) Linking ISSN: 02681153 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Health Educ Res

Publication: Oxford : Oxford University Press
Original Publication: Oxford ; Washington, D.C. : IRL Press, [c1986-

Adolescent Behavior* ; Parent-Child Relations* ; Socialization*; Smoking/*epidemiology; Adolescent ; Adult ; Attitude of Health Personnel ; Child ; Communication ; Female ; Health Behavior ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Internet ; Male ; Netherlands ; Peer Group ; Self Efficacy ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Parents play an important role in the development of young people's smoking behavior, through the modeling effects of their own smoking status, through the ways they raise their children and through the ways they deal with smoking at home. The present study focused on anti-smoking socialization by, first, comparing the perspectives of both parents and an adolescent on eight indicators of anti-smoking socialization. In addition, we aimed to examine how these indicators of anti-smoking socialization are related to adolescent smoking-related cognitions (e.g. attitudes, self-efficacy, intentions to smoke). Data were collected from 116 Dutch families with fathers, mothers and adolescents (10-19 years old) included. Self-reports of these family members were used by means of questionnaires that were sent through the Internet. The findings showed that parents and adolescents differ in their reports on anti-smoking socialization. In general, mothers are more positive about anti-smoking socialization than adolescents and fathers. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that aspects of anti-smoking socialization, such as parental monitoring, norms on adolescents smoking and reactions on adolescent smoking, are related to smoking-related cognitions, such as negative attitudes to smoking, lower intentions to start smoking and higher self-efficacy. These findings are a first step in research on smoking-specific socialization that is considered to be of importance for the development of effective smoking prevention programmes focusing on parents. Nonetheless, longitudinal studies on large samples of families are needed to replicate the findings in this study.

Date Created: 20040514 Date Completed: 20040708 Latest Revision: 20151119

20231215

10.1093/her/cyg042

15140843