The Negative Impact of Parental Smoking on Adolescents’ Health-Promoting Behaviors: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

The literature has indicated that adolescents’ exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) and having smoking parents were positively associated with current tobacco smoking. Few studies have explored the association between parental smoking and adolescent’s health-promoting behaviors. This study aimed to examine the prevalence of SHS and the relationship between parental smoking at home and adolescent’s health-promoting behaviors in rural areas. Methods: A school-based and cross-sectional study was conducted from March to December 2019 in western coastal Yunlin County, Taiwan. A total of 1227 adolescents, including 51% boys, anonymously participated in this study. Three parental smoking situations and eight questions of adolescents’ habits extracted from previous studies were applied. A linear regression model was used to analyze the factors associated with adopting health-promoting behaviors. Results: More than half (67.7%) of adolescents experienced parental smoking at home, 90.2% reported their family smoked around them, and 48.8% of participants “sometimes” or “never” avoided SHS. Many participants showed a low frequency of water (49.6%), vegetable (49.1%), and fruit (63.2%) intake, using dental floss (84.7%), and regular exercise (60.6%). The determinants of adolescents’ health-promoting scores were highly associated with avoidance of SHS, less associated with parental smoking, and parents smoking at home and around adolescents. Conclusion: The findings showed that in the rural area, a high prevalence of parental smoking at home and parental smoking around adolescents was noted. It is an important issue that parental smoking was negatively associated with adolescent’s health-promoting behaviors.