POTENTIAL MEDIATORS, MODERATORS, OR INDEPENDENT EFFECTS IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PARENTS FORMER AND CURRENT CIGARETTE USE AND THEIR CHILDRENS CIGARETTE USE

Research consistently has shown that cigarette use by adolescents is r elated to their parents' use and to particular characteristics of the family environment, but few studies have examined the linkages between parents' smoking behavior and other family characteristics to explain adolescents' smoking. In this study, we tested mediator, moderator, a nd independent models for their ability to characterize the relationsh ip between parents' and their children's smoking. A sample of 719 matc hed pairs of parent (usually mother) and child was used. Respondents w ere part of an ongoing randomized evaluation of the Drug Abuse Resista nce Education (DARE) Project in Illinois, and the subset of data used in these analyses was collected in 1991, when the youths were in the s ixth or seventh grades. Results of logistic regression provided the gr eatest support for the independent model, which suggests that the effe cts of parents' smoking and familial characteristics on adolescents' s moking are not linked. Results also supported those found by other res earchers by showing that parents' former smoking is associated with ad olescents' current smoking. Significant family characteristics were fa mily disunion and parents' awareness of their child's activities. Thes e results suggest, in part, that children at any age may have the capa bility of storing memories of their parents' smoking, memories that in fluence their own smoking; also, characteristics of the family environ ment, independent of parents' smoking behavior, have an effect on adol escents' smoking. Prevention implications and recommendations are also discussed.