EFFECTS OF PARENTAL BEHAVIOR ON TOBACCO USE BY YOUNG MALE-ADOLESCENTS

This study evaluates a social-developmental model of early adolescent tobacco involvement with a sample of 204 seventh grade boys. Using dat a from the young adolescents, their parents, and siblings, we examine the influence of parental childrearing strategies (harsh/inconsistent and nurturant/involved) and reported parent, sibling, and peer tobacco use on tobacco involvement by early adolescents. Results from correla tional analyses and structural equation modeling support three of the four proposed models. Even after controlling for the effects of parent al and sibling tobacco use, positive relationships were found between harsh/inconsistent parenting and adolescent tobacco use, and negative relationships between nurturant/involved parenting behaviors and adole scent tobacco use. Of particular interest, parenting behaviors had bot h direct and indirect effects on adolescent tobacco use through the ad olescents' associations with tobacco-using peers.