Family Support as Smoking Prevention during Transition from Early to Late Adolescence: A Study in 42 Countries

Apolinaras Zaborskis, Aistė Kavaliauskienė, Charli Eriksson, Ellen Klemera, Elitsa Dimitrova, Marina Melkumova and Daniela Husarova
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Apolinaras Zaborskis: Faculty of Public Health, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, LT-44307 Kaunas, Lithuania
Aistė Kavaliauskienė: Faculty of Odontology, Medical Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, LT-44307 Kaunas, Lithuania
Charli Eriksson: Department of Public Health Sciences, Stockholm University, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden
Ellen Klemera: Centre for Health Services Studies, Division of Low, Society and Social Justice, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NS, UK
Elitsa Dimitrova: Institute for Population and Human Studies, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences & Plovdiv University Paisii Hilendarski, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria
Marina Melkumova: Arabkir Medical Centre-Institute of Child and Adolescent Health, National Institute of Health, Yerevan 0014, Armenia
Daniela Husarova: Department of Health Psychology and Methodology Research, Faculty of Medicine, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, 04011 Kosice, Slovakia

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 23, 1-15

Abstract: Family support has a beneficial impact on protecting health-risk behaviour in adolescents. This study aimed to explore whether family support is associated with risk of smoking during transition from early (11 years) to late (15 years) adolescence across 42 countries. The data from the cross-national Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study in 2017/2018 were employed (N = 195,966). Family support was measured using the four-item Family dimension of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (sum score 20 or more was categorised as high family support). Smoking was defined as a reported cigarette smoking at least 1–2 days in the last 30 days. The association between smoking and family support was assessed using a prevalence ratio (PR) obtained from the multivariate Poisson regression. Over two thirds of adolescents reported high levels of support from their family. Family support was found to significantly decrease with age in most of the countries, with the boys reported high level of family support more often than girls. The adolescents who reported having low family support also were more likely to smoke compared to their peers who reported having high family support (PR = 1.81; 95% CI: 1.71–1.91 in boys, and PR = 2.19; 95% CI: 2.08–2.31 in girls). The countries with a stronger effect of family support in reducing smoking risk indicated lower rates of adolescent smoking as well as lower increases in the cigarette smoking prevalence during the age period from 11 to 15 years. This study reinforces the need for family support, which is an important asset helping adolescents to overcome the risk of smoking during their transition from early to late adolescence.

Keywords: adolescents; parents; family; support; smoking; prevention; HBSC (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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