Family member smoking and psychosocial factors influencing adolescent tobacco use

Adolescent smoking behavior is influenced by internal and external factors and may be modeled from practices of parents and siblings. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impacts of family member smoking and psychological and normative factors on adolescent lifetime tobacco use. Data were collected using a cross-sectional survey of 1,549 sixth through twelfth grade students. Hierarchical logistic regression was employed to examine the effects of personal characteristics, family member smoking, and psychosocial measures on adolescent lifetime tobacco use drawing on a model derived from the Biopsychosocial Model. Approximately 28% of participants reported having ever used tobacco, and of those students 56.3% reported smoking initiation between ages 10 and 15 years. Over 27% of respondents reported having a parent smoker and 17.8% reported having a sibling smoker. Results indicate high school students (OR=2.71) and those with parent (OR=1.74) or sibling (OR=4.11) smokers were significantly more likely to have ever used tobacco. In the presence of psychosocial variables, high school students (OR=1.96) and those with a sibling smoker (OR=3.00) remained significant. Adolescents perceiving drugs as risky (OR=0.91) and resisting peer conformance (OR=0.86) were significantly less likely to have used tobacco. Students perceiving their parents (OR=1.15) or peers (OR=1.20) to approve of drug use and those perceiving their peers to use drugs (OR=1.13) were more likely to have ever used tobacco. Understanding the interactions between adolescent's home environment, risk perceptions, and normative beliefs may enable community and school officials to tailor interventions to prevent smoking initiation and foster tobacco cessation.