Parent intervention protects kids against smoking initiation
May 3rd, 2011 - 6:48 pm ICT by ANIWashington, May 3 (ANI): Parents shouldn’t let up in their efforts when it comes to discouraging their kids from smoking, suggests a new study.
Researchers, led by E. Melinda Mahabee-Gittens, an emergency medicine physician at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, sought to determine if family factors continue to protect adolescents as they grow older and whether these factors affect youths of varying racial/ethnic backgrounds differently.
Investigators studied 3,473 pairs of white, black and Hispanic parents and nonsmoking youths who participated in the National Survey of Parents and Youth in November 1999-June 2001 (Time 1) and again in July 2002-June 2003 (Time 2).
They looked at whether youths remained nonsmokers throughout the study period, and they assessed changes in family factors thought to protect against smoking initiation over time.
While results showed no differences in the rate of smoking initiation between Time 1 and Time 2 by race, the levels of protective family factors decreased significantly from Time 1 to Time 2 across all racial/ethnic groups in both smokers and nonsmokers.
However, levels of protective factors were consistently higher in nonsmoking youths compared to smokers.
Continued, higher levels of connectedness and monitoring by parents decreased the risk of smoking initiation by as much as 30 percent in both whites and Hispanics.
The study was presented recently at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Denver. (ANI)
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