I never really thought about this subject until a recent journal article prompted me toward evaluation. The question is, "Do you have a smoking ban at home?" Well, if both parents are nonsmokers, the answer seems pretty obvious, yes. But what about children who smoke in a household where the parents don't? Do the parents maintain the ban or give into the whim of the child. Perhaps they place rules on smoking like 'only do it outside'.
I think nonsmoking parents are in a great position to legislate the household toward a smoking ban. Not because you want to keep your kid from getting nicotine poisoning or anything. But after all, it is the parent's house. They make the payments and the kid just kind of lives there rent free. It seems like the parents could really make a stand on this issue. In the long run, they'd be improving the health of their kids and themselves by limiting the amount of direct and indirect smoke inhaled by the family. A win-win for everyone, whether they realize it at the time or not.
Who knows, perhaps the kid will quit as the cycle of addiction gets interrupted in the house. Then they can see what happens when you quit smoking.
Showing posts with label adolescence smoking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adolescence smoking. Show all posts
Academic Achievement and Smoking Initiation
This particular topic has been studied before and even commented on by me. But it bears repeating, especially when a great study comes out and tells us something we all suspected in the first place. The question is this, if people who have greater college education smoke less, then how far back can we trace this phenomona? In other words, do lower achievers in say, high school, middle school or even elementary school, have a greater propensity to end up a smoker?
I love the journal Addiction. They publish some really unique studies on nicotine addiction. The researchers here have really hit a home run, or at least I think so. They evaluated 741 kids with absolutely no history of smoking in the 7th grade, this is in Canada. They followed these kids for 4 years up through grade 10. Here's what they found.
Based on the grade point average (GPA) of the students, three academic achievement levels or what they call trajectories were identified: high achievers (HA), average achievers (AA) and unstable low achievers (ULA). ULA made up about 12% of the total studied population. Within these three groups were identified different rates of smoking initiation.
HA - 7.1% initiation
AA - 15.1% initiation
ULA - 49.1% initiation
Lets see if we can identify a trend. Hum, it's on the tip of my tongue. Pretty startling isn't it. In addition, they found that ULA students who had involved and educated parents were less likely to initiate smoking.
It looks as if apathy is the largest contributor to smoking initiation. Here comes my sweeping, broad stroked statement - kids who aren't taught to care about their education by their parents seem doomed to repeat their parents' mistakes. Now granted, some of these kids have very difficult family situations, but I'm sure those exist in all the populations studied.
The point is this, education seems to matter, especially when it comes to smoking. The less educated smoke more. Those identified early in adolescence as low achievers will end up smoking more. This is great to know because that means we can intervene in this time of their life and potentially break the cycle of addiction before it starts. Nicotine and the brain do not mix, especially at such a young age. But it seems we can do something about it. So talk to your kids before he/she gets to 7th grade about how smoking is stupid and how it kills people. We do it here all the time and my kids are totally grossed out by smoking and think it's the worst thing ever.
I love the journal Addiction. They publish some really unique studies on nicotine addiction. The researchers here have really hit a home run, or at least I think so. They evaluated 741 kids with absolutely no history of smoking in the 7th grade, this is in Canada. They followed these kids for 4 years up through grade 10. Here's what they found.
Based on the grade point average (GPA) of the students, three academic achievement levels or what they call trajectories were identified: high achievers (HA), average achievers (AA) and unstable low achievers (ULA). ULA made up about 12% of the total studied population. Within these three groups were identified different rates of smoking initiation.
HA - 7.1% initiation
AA - 15.1% initiation
ULA - 49.1% initiation
Lets see if we can identify a trend. Hum, it's on the tip of my tongue. Pretty startling isn't it. In addition, they found that ULA students who had involved and educated parents were less likely to initiate smoking.
It looks as if apathy is the largest contributor to smoking initiation. Here comes my sweeping, broad stroked statement - kids who aren't taught to care about their education by their parents seem doomed to repeat their parents' mistakes. Now granted, some of these kids have very difficult family situations, but I'm sure those exist in all the populations studied.
The point is this, education seems to matter, especially when it comes to smoking. The less educated smoke more. Those identified early in adolescence as low achievers will end up smoking more. This is great to know because that means we can intervene in this time of their life and potentially break the cycle of addiction before it starts. Nicotine and the brain do not mix, especially at such a young age. But it seems we can do something about it. So talk to your kids before he/she gets to 7th grade about how smoking is stupid and how it kills people. We do it here all the time and my kids are totally grossed out by smoking and think it's the worst thing ever.
Adolescence Smoking
When I was in school, there were lots of kids who smoked. Adolescence smoking could have been considered a problem in my hometown, for sure. People used to hang out at one of the local lakes and light up back in the woods. In fact, I wasn't particularly popular and happened upon a bunch of popular kids smoking in the woods. I incorrectly assumed if I smoked too, then I would be popular as well. The whole 1 plus 1 equals 3 argument. Thankfully, the initial smoking experience turned me off enough that it didn't stick.
There is talk in the medical and scientific community about what to do when these adolescents want to quit. Then if they quit, how do we keep them quit. A recent study looked at factors that caused relapse in adolescence smoking. Again, they want to understand how to design a cookie-cutter program for youth.
It was no shocker to me that they discovered a whole host of factors that caused relapse in adolescence smoking. I think the researchers need to remember what it was like when they were kids. Very little makes sense about kids. They're fighting hormones, peer pressures, acceptence, relational conflicts, the idea of being grown up, etc. There is no cookie-cutter approach smoking cessation or relapse prevention in adolescence smoking. Hey, they're just kids. Too many variables to consider.
IMHO, I think we should focus on establishing a strong parental relationship with their kids. If there aren't any parents or if they're duds, then we should focus our attention on getting them help. My guess would be that smoking is probably the least of those kids' problems. Don't get me wrong, but suicide, crime and other social ills probably rank higher on the priority list than does adolescence smoking for those at risk kids.
There is talk in the medical and scientific community about what to do when these adolescents want to quit. Then if they quit, how do we keep them quit. A recent study looked at factors that caused relapse in adolescence smoking. Again, they want to understand how to design a cookie-cutter program for youth.
It was no shocker to me that they discovered a whole host of factors that caused relapse in adolescence smoking. I think the researchers need to remember what it was like when they were kids. Very little makes sense about kids. They're fighting hormones, peer pressures, acceptence, relational conflicts, the idea of being grown up, etc. There is no cookie-cutter approach smoking cessation or relapse prevention in adolescence smoking. Hey, they're just kids. Too many variables to consider.
IMHO, I think we should focus on establishing a strong parental relationship with their kids. If there aren't any parents or if they're duds, then we should focus our attention on getting them help. My guess would be that smoking is probably the least of those kids' problems. Don't get me wrong, but suicide, crime and other social ills probably rank higher on the priority list than does adolescence smoking for those at risk kids.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)