This paper reports upon an empirical study of health behaviors in adol
escents and their parents. The study aimed at assessing: effects of pa
rental health behaviors on that of their adolescent child; whether mot
her's and father's health behaviors have additive effects on the respe
ctive health behaviors of their child; and whether eventual effects of
parental health behaviors decrease with increasing age of the child.
The data stemmed from the Norwegian national Health Survey in 1985 and
comprised separate interviews with two parents and an adolescent chil
d in 337 families. Results from logistic regression analyses showed th
at the strongest association found between parental and adolescent hea
lth behaviors was for fat intake, and the probability of having a low
fat intake was 5 times higher if the mother had a low fat intake than
if she did not. With the exception of mother's frequency of exercise,
all other parental health behaviors were positively and statistically
significantly associated with the corresponding health behavior of the
ir adolescent child. Parental fat intake, smoking behavior and alcohol
consumption appeared to have additive effects on the corresponding be
haviors of their children. No statistically significant interaction be
tween any of the parental health behaviors and age of the adolescent w
as found. Hence, the effect of parental health behaviors on that of th
eir adolescent child does not seem to decrease with increasing age of
the adolescent. The results are discussed with reference to the functi
ons of modeling.