Involved Fathers Reduce Kids' Risk of Smoking

A new scientific investigation on a large sample of kids found that fathers who are involved in their children's education, and who tend to communicate with them about “things that matter,” reduce their kids' risk of experimenting with smoking. The investigation was conducted on young adolescents, as this is the age group most prone to trying out tobacco. The researchers behind the new work say that the results held even after the team checked for the influence of other socio-economic factors on this behavior, e! Science News reports.

The research was conducted by a team of experts from the Cardiff University School of Medicine, in the United Kingdom. The group was led by scientist Dr James White, who spent about three years compiling the data necessary to reach these conclusions. The age group that was targeted for the investigation was that of 11 to 15 year-olds, and additional data on these kids were taken from the British Youth Panel Survey, which is a part of the larger British Household Panel survey. In these analyses, children in the UK report on their own on a variety of issues researchers are interested in.

The Cardiff team says that the “protection” communicative fathers confer on their children extends both on boys and girls. “This study suggests that a greater awareness of parents' and especially fathers' potential impact upon their teenagers' choices about whether to smoke is needed. Fathers should be encouraged and supported to improve the quality and frequency of communication with their children during adolescence. The impact of teenager parenting is relatively un-researched and further research is very much needed,” the team leader says.

The findings were presented on Thursday, April 15, at the annual conference of the British Psychological Society. The study group contained some 3,500 participants, neither of which ever smoked before the research began. A number of other factors were taken into account in addition to parental influence, such as for example the number of arguments their families had, the frequency of family meals and so one. Age, gender, income, parental smoking and monitoring, were also among the variables the investigation accounted for.