Incidence and Risk Factors of School Children' s Smoking: Results of CABLE Study

As adolescent smoking has been found to raise the risk for adults smoking, this study aims to understand the incidence and the risk factors of adolescent smoking, especially parental and social environmental influences. The data was collected from “Child and Adolescent Behaviors in Long-Term Evolution (CABLE)” study. The 2556 participants were 5th graders in 2002 and followed until 2005. The related factors of incidence of smoking included three components: individual characteristics, such as gender, living areas, and mental health; family nature, including family structure, family socioeconomic status, parental smoking, and parenting style; and social environment, such as peers' smoking, school attachment, and neighborhood cohesion. Survival analysis was applied to investigate the risk factors associated with adolescent smoking. About 51.3% of the participants were boys, 58.7% reported either one parent smoking, and 10.8% reported that over half of their friends smoking. The incidences of smoking in 2003, 2004 and 2005 were 4.93%, 3.16% and 6.51% respectively. Results of survival analysis indicated that boys were 1.73 more likely to smoke than girls. Children with both parents smoking were 2.03 times higher than those with no parents smoking to smoke. Those with over half of the peers smoked had 7.9 times higher chance of smoking than those with no peers smoking. Those with higher school attachment were less likely to smoke than their counterparts. This study confirmed the influences of family and school on children's smoking. Therefore, we recommend smoking prevention should be implemented in families and schools.