Dialog with Your Children and Perceived Norms About Tobacco

Many resources including the American Cancer Society advocate for parents to converse with their children regarding the dangers of tobacco. It is generally accepted that parents who discuss tobacco with their children are more successful in preventing initial trial of cigarette smoking among adolescents. However, children live in a society that exerts many forms of influence on health behavior decision.

Several hypotheses were examined regarding the mediating effect of perceptual influences on the relationship between “talking with parents about the dangers of tobacco” and lifetime experience with cigarette smoking behavior. The mediating variables selected where thought to be measures of the influential forces faced by youth.

Data were used from the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) to observe the relationship between “talking with parents about the dangers of tobacco” and lifetime experience with cigarette smoking behavior among adolescents aged 12-17 in the United States (n = 17,179). Three mediating variables were selected from the survey asking how the respondents perceived the approval from (a) their parents, (b) their close friends, and (c) their peers if they were to smoke a pack of cigarettes per day.

Once simple mediating models representing the relationship of the variables were constructed a series of statistical procedures was employed to examine the details of relationship. Bivariate correlations were performed on the three mediators and significant relationships exist for the conditions set. In order to assess the mediation a Sobel test, a statistical analysis of the indirect effect in a standard mediation model, was selected due to the large sample size of the NSDUH.

The Sobel test results were consistent with the hypothesis that all three mediating variables would demonstrate a partial mediation on the relationship of the IV on the DV. In regards to lifetime cigarette use among adolescents who discuss the dangers of tobacco, perceived disapproval within social groups produced a significant (p<.001) indirect effect in each of the models examined.

Parents not only need to be concerned with discussing the dangers of tobacco use with their children, but they should consider how their children perceive the acceptance of that behavior among others. Additional dialogue that includes candid discussion about what others think and what influence that construct has on the adolescence's decision to engage or not engage in the behavior is necessary if the parent wants to successfully prevent their child from trying cigarettes for the first time.