DETERMINANTS OF PARENTAL ATTEMPTS TO DETER THEIR CHILDRENS CIGARETTE-SMOKING

Prevention programs targeting child and adolescent cigarette smoking h ave primarily focused on the social influence of peers, to the neglect of parents. The limited success of these programs and the consistent evidence linking parenting practices to cigarette smoking and other su bstance use has sparked interest in the role parents play in their chi ldren's decision to smoke. Using cross-sectional data from participant s in an ongoing longitudinal project, the present study examined possi ble determinants of two smoking-specific parenting behaviors: parent a ctivism (how much a parent discourages, talks about, and monitors/cont rols child smoking) and parental permissiveness about the child smokin g at home. Several health, addiction, and stress variables were hypoth esized to promote or undermine these parenting behaviors. Results sugg ested that parental values on their child's nonsmoking (particularly f or fathers) significantly predicted both parenting behaviors. However, the relation between parents' values and their actions was weakened f or parents with less negative health beliefs about smoking and for par ents under higher levels of environmental stress. Parental beliefs abo ut the health consequences of smoking were associated with activism bu t not permissiveness, whereas parental beliefs about the addictive nat ure of smoking predicted neither outcome. Parental smoking predicted o nly permissiveness, but smoking status was involved in several interes ting interactions. The present findings suggest that cigarette smoking prevention programs may be improved by increasing parents' values on their children's nonsmoking, increasing parents' beliefs about the hea lth risks of smoking, helping parents cope with stress, and being part icularly aware of the differential effect that these factors can have on mothers and fathers and on parents who smoke cigarettes themselves or who have smoked in the past.