Quit smoking - You quit before they start

A new study exploring smoking, heavy drinking, and marijuana use across three generations indicates that the children of a parent who uses any of these substances are more likely to smoke, binge drink, or use marijuana in adolescence and adulthood.

The children of cigarette smokers face an especially murky future according to the University of Washington study published in a recent issue of the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology.

There is something about tobacco that if parents smoke then their children also take up smoking, and that too at an early age. The researchers feel that it may be because parents tend to be careless and leave the cigarettes around where the children can get them. They may not be so careless with marijuana and other drugs.

The study also found that children of parents who smoke also had several behavioral problems. As children, they had attention deficit disorders, problems at school, and bullying behavior. As adolescents, they went on to have oppositional defiant behavior, where they had problems with the authorities and often ended up as juvenile delinquents.

An interesting fact the researchers found was the link between general substance use and childhood behavior problems despite such variable social factors as marital status, education, and neighborhood conditions.

The researchers also insist that these findings cannot be generalized to all smokers. All kids do not end up smoking only due to their parents’ influence. Peer pressure is also a great factor influencing kids into taking up cigarettes early on in life.

At the end of the day, it suffices to say that kids learn from their parents. Set the right example for your children so that no amount of external pressure can deviate them from the right path.