Washington, May 10 (Inditop.com) Teens aged between 12 and 17 years living with mothers who are current smokers, or who have had a major depressive episode in the past year, are far more likely to smoke, says a new study.
The study was sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in the US.
The new study shows that adolescents living with mothers who currently smoke were nearly three times more likely to take up smoking than adolescents living with non-smoking mothers (16.9 percent versus 5.8 percent).
Similarly, adolescents living with mothers who have suffered from a major depressive episode in the past year were almost twice as likely to take up smoking as adolescents not living in that situation (14.3 percent versus 7.9 percent).
In addition the study revealed adolescents living with mothers who had a major depressive episode and were current smokers were four times more likely to smoke than adolescents living with mothers who had neither of these conditions (25.3 percent versus 5.6 percent).
More than one in four (25.6 percent) of adolescents lived with mothers who currently smoke and nearly one in 10 adolescents (9.7 percent) lived with mothers who have experienced a major depressive episode in the past year. About 1 in 27 (3.7 percent) of all adolescents lived with mothers with both of these conditions.
“These findings highlight factors that influence smoking among adolescents. It also suggests that prevention of smoking requires attention to multiple risk factors, including mental illness in the family,” said Pamela S. Hyde, an administrator at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
“Knowing the factors that contribute to smoking helps to design and implement the best approach towards prevention and well-being,” Hyde said.
The study is based on data collected during 2005 to 2007 from SAMHSA’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health which collected samples from 7,359 mother-child pairs.
