Parents Who Smoked More Likely to Have Children Who Follow, Study Says

Do our children pay for our mistakes? Well it appears so after a new study found that children are more likely to try smoking if their parents did, even if they stopped before the child was born. Older siblings who smoked were also reported to have an influence on the younger children.

In a multi-generation study published in the journal Pediatrics, researchers from Purdue University in Indiana found that adults, who smoked or are still smoking, are 3.2 times more likely to have children who also experiment with cigarettes.

Researchers gathered data from a sample of ninth grade students in St. Paul, Minn. They followed this group from 1988 through age 38 - and then also gathered data from the children of that group, starting at age 11.

The rate of smoking reported by kids ages 11 and older was 23 percent to 29 percent among those whose parents had once smoked or currently smoked compared with 8 percent among children of never smokers, Mike Vuolo, PhD, of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., and Jeremy Staff, PhD, of Pennsylvania State University in University Park, found.

"These findings imply that any amount of smoking could have important influences on the next generation," said Vuolo. "Given the influence on the oldest siblings, this is especially the case in heavy-smoking households."

In families where the oldest child smoked, younger siblings were six times more likely to smoke as well. Older siblings were 15 times more likely to smoke if they were in a household where one of their parents smoked compared to a home where no parent smoked.

"We should educate young people that smoking at any time in their lives could have influences on their children. Also, preventative efforts should target heavy-smoking households, trying to break the cycle of influence on the oldest siblings," Vuolo said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 18 percent of U.S. adults are current cigarette smokers.