Children from broken homes twice as likely to smoke

0 Comments | Sunday Herald, The, Apr 28, 2002 | by Sarah Kate Templeton

Children from broken homes are twice as likely to smoke as those whose parents remain together, according to a major survey of 15- year-olds.

Around 10,500 15-year-olds from seven north European countries, including Scotland, were questioned for the study into adolescent smoking habits.

The comparison of types of family and levels of smoking among 15- year-olds found that the teenagers were most likely to smoke if they lived with a step-parent. The children of lone parents were the next most likely to smoke, while those who lived with both parents were least likely to smoke.

The report by academics at Edinburgh University and the Information and Statistics Division of the NHS is to be published in the journal Social Science and Medicine. It states: "Smoking among 15- year-olds was significantly related to family structure in all countries. Young people in intact families were less likely to be daily smokers than those in lone-parent families, who in turn were less likely to smoke than young people in stepfamilies."

The findings also reinforced the link between teenage smoking and having a parent who smokes. In four out of the seven countries surveyed, smoking rates were more than double in young people who had at least one smoking parent. The percentage of children with another smoker at home was generally highest in stepfamilies.

But even when the researchers adjusted the figures to take account of the the fact that stepchildren were more likely to have a parent who smoked, they found that the experience of being in a stepfamily in itself put them at risk of smoking.

The report says: "The most striking finding is a strong and independent association in all but one country between family structure, in particular stepfamilies, and smoking.

"The higher smoking rates in parents and households of stepfamilies did not explain the higher smoking rates among adolescents in these families. Nor did the generally poorer economic status of these families. Thus our results clearly indicate that there is something about stepfamilies which is markedly different from intact families and lone-parent families in relation to adolescent smoking."

Teenagers rebelling against step-parents and a lack of control over children in broken families could be responsible for the higher levels of smoking, the academics suggest.

"Depending upon the age of the child when the family is reconstituted, the reformation of a family unit in all countries will involve a complex and ongoing series of negotiations of roles and relationships," says the report. "These negotiations take place in most families but they may cause additional strain on the members of a stepfamily if the adolescent refuses to recognise the authority of the step-parent, or if the step-parent is reluctant to assume parental authority.

"In addition, if adolescents spend their time in two different families, a lack of clarity or disagreement between the two households on certain matters, including smoking, could be another factor in young people forming a more or less favourable attitude toward smoking themselves."

But one of the report's authors, Dr Amanda Amos of the Department of Community Health Sciences at Edinburgh University, said more research was needed. "Even when we adjusted for other factors such as lower economic status, we found that family structure was independently associated with smoking. Fifteen-year-olds living with step-parents were significantly more likely to smoke. Gaining a better understanding of these 'risk conditions' is essential in order to inform the development of appropriate health promotion policies."

Fifteen-year-olds in Scotland, Wales, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany and Norway were interviewed for the study. Of the seven countries, 15-year-olds in Scotland had the third highest percentage of daily smokers after Germany and Austria. In Scotland 21.8% of 15- year-olds smoke daily compared to 23.6% in Germany and just 18.1% in Denmark. And in Scotland 35.8% of 15-year-olds living in stepfamilies smoke compared to 24.7% in single-parent families and 18.9% who live with both parents.

Smoking prevalence among young people in many European countries continues to increase at a time when adult smoking is decreasing. Experts associate this trend with the increase in the numbers of children living in one-parent families or stepfamilies.

Last year Hollywood films such as the cult hit Pulp Fiction were blamed for encouraging children to take up smoking. Research revealed that youngsters who watched films in which actors smoked heavily were two-and-a- half times more likely to take up the habit than children who watched films with no smoking.