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If Cigarettes Are Around,
Teens More Likely to Smoke
(HealthScoutNews) -- It sounds obvious,
but a new study now proves it: If cigarettes are easily available,
especially at home, teens are more likely to smoke.
In two surveys spaced by a year's
time, researchers from San Diego State University polled 478 7th
and 8th graders, 12 to 15 years old, who had never tried cigarettes,
not even a puff, asking them first how available cigarettes were
and then whether they had decided to try smoking.
At the one-year mark, 6.3 percent
of the students reported having tried a cigarette. When other
conditions were factored in, the researchers found that those
teens who had more access to cigarettes from parents and offers
of smokes from other adults were more likely to try smoking during
that one year.
"The main finding here is
the role of social access," says James. F. Sallis, a professor
of psychology at San Diego State and one of the co-authors of
the study, published in the January/February issue of the American
Journal of Health Behavior. By social access, he means availability
of cigarettes, either because parents smoke them regularly and
they are around the house, or because other adults offer the teens
a cigarette.
"We've known for a long time
that having parents who smoke is a risk factor," he adds.
"But we didn't know why."
The researchers speculated it might
be modeling -- the fact that parents who smoke might approve of
teen smoking -- or simply the availability of cigarettes in a
household where parents smoke.
"It looks like that very point,
availability, is a main issue," Sallis says. "Modeling
might be important, too."
But parental approval may not be
as high on the list.
The kids in the study who found
it easy to get cigarettes from around the house were not necessarily
getting handouts, the authors emphasize.
More than 99 percent of the students
said their parents would be upset about their smoking. So the
speculation is that the students who found cigarettes around the
house were pilfering them from their parents' supplies.
The authors conclude that, from
a public health perspective, media campaigns to discourage adults
from offering cigarettes to minors might be considered and might
help the teen smoking problem.
Most daily smokers begin smoking
before age 18, several studies confirm, and preventing teens from
starting to smoke cigarettes in the first place is an important
public health priority.
A California psychologist who is
an expert in addictive behaviors says that the finding in the
San Diego State study makes sense and that it mirrors what is
known from alcohol studies; that increased availability boosts
the chances of people drinking or drinking too much.
"Availability is a key issue"
in explaining what factors contribute to people taking up habits
such as smoking and drinking alcohol, sometimes to excess, says
A. Thomas Horvath, who runs Practical Recovery Services, an addiction
treatment center in La Jolla.
Sallis says the take-home point
for parents who smoke is that they need to be more aware of how
the availability affects their kids' decisions to smoke.
"Don't leave cigarettes lying
around," he advises. "Keep them in a pack. Tear up smoked
ones so there's not a third of a butt left [that can be relit
and smoked]."
Horvath agrees. "If you don't
want your children to smoke, you need to pay special attention
to the availability [of cigarettes in your home]," he says.
What To Do
For information on teens and tobacco,
visit the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services.
Reference
Source 101
For more information on how to prevent other diseases, use
PreventDisease.com's "Quick
Prevention Resources".
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