How Can Parents Prevent their Children from Smoking? A Case Study Based on Four Yilan County Junior High Schools

Author: Yi-Chung Chun*, Hsiang-Ru Lai*, Der-Min Wu**, Pi-Hsia Lee***, Nian-Feng Chu****, Tzu-Yu Liu*, Hin-I Lee* * Department of Health at National Taiwan Normal University** Department of Public Health at National Defense Medical Center*** College of Nursing at Taipei Medical University**** Department of Family & Community Health at Tri-Service General Hospit

Vol.&No.：Vol. 50, No. 1
Date：April 2005
Pages：155-173
DOI：10.3966/2073753X2005045001008

Abstract：

The adolescent smoking rate in Taiwan seems to be increasing gradually. Many studies indicate that young people tend to start smoking in junior high school. It seems that parents are not really able to prevent adolescents from smoking. The main purpose of our study was to explore parents’methods of making their children stop smoking, and to analyze other related factors. By stratified random sampling, we selected 706 parents of 7th-9th grade students in four junior high schools in Yilan Ciountry. These parents completed a questionnaire at home. The results showed that mothers tended to employ more effective preventive measures than fathers, and that non-smoking parents（predictably）did better than parents who smoked in preventing their children from smoking. Furthermore, parents’ knowledge of the disadvantages of smoking and（thus）their anti-tobacco attitude were significantly associated with all smoking-prevention measures and with five related factors. Moreover, the 18.90％～52.04％ variation among all measures and the five factors could be explained by parenting style, age, knowledge of smoking, parental attitude and behavior. It was therefore concluded that we should actively promote the education of parents regarding the negative effects of smoking, instilling in them a firm anti-smoking attitude: this will greatly increase their ability to convince their children to stop smoking. We should also encourage parents themselves to quit smoking, so that they may serve as models for their children.

Keywords：parents' smoking prevention measures, negative effects of smoking, anti-smoking attitude

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