Maternal action and ethnicity in the prevention of adolescent smoking in south eastern Sydney

Parents have a significant role in the prevention of smoking among their children, yet there is scarce research into what parents actually do to encourage non-smoking. This paper examines the actions that a sample of mothers of grades 7 and 8 students in southern Sydney have taken with regard to smoking prevention and the factors associated with taking action. Data were collected from 1113 mothers through a self-completed questionnaire sent home and returned by students. About four out of five mothers had had an open discussion about the importance of not smoking and 28% had enforced non-smoking rules. Non-smoking mothers, mothers with a more positive attitude towards their role in preventing their child from smoking and mothers who were worried about their child smoking were more likely to have enforced rules. After adjusting for maternal smoking, level of worry about their child smoking and attitude towards smoking, mothers speaking a language other than English at home were significantly less likely to have discussed not smoking, but tended to have enforced non-smoking rules. When an associated study of the children of these mothers is considered, where students speaking a language other than English at home smoked less than those speaking English, it suggests that enforcing non-smoking rules is an effective strategy for at least delaying smoking among grades 7 and 8 students. [Tang KC, Rissel C, Rowling L. Maternal action and ethnicity in the prevention of adolescent smoking in south eastern Sydney. Drug Alcohol Rev 1999;18:193-199].