Maternal influence on adolescent boys' tobacco use

Introduction: Delaying and decreasing tobacco use among adolescents is a public health priority. Close to 40% of Black high school youth report ever smoking; 10% report smoking daily. Culturally tailored models which increased parent-child communication, relationships, and maternal role-modeling are one way to reduce engagement in smoking behaviors.

Methods: Participants are 526 mothers, recruited from public housing programs in Philadelphia, PA, and randomly assigned to a general health or sexual health intervention group, and their sons, ages 11-15 years. Data presented was collected at pre-intervention and 3, 6, and 12-months post-intervention. Generalized Estimating Equation was used to model mother-son communication about tobacco use, mother-son relationships, and maternal monitoring and role-modeling.

Results: While monitoring did not change significantly over time, mother-son relationships were strengthened; mothers reported greater relationship satisfaction at both 6 and 12-months. Communication was also influenced with mothers in the health intervention 1.6 times (3 months) and 2.2 times (12 months) more likely to report talking to their sons about not smoking cigarettes. While there were no significant differences in sons' cigarette use behaviors by intervention type, in both conditions, sons whose mothers were non-smokers were significantly less likely to report smoking at follow-up as compared to sons of active smokers.

Conclusions: This study highlights the value of health interventions to increase mother-son communication about not smoking cigarettes and the importance of targeting parental role-modeling behaviors. The findings provide evidence for the need to implement culturally tailored family-based approaches as one way of reducing uptake of cigarette smoking.