The Link Between Parental Smoking and Youth Externalizing Behaviors: Independent Effects of Smoking, Parent, and Family Characteristics

Background. The association between parental cigarette smoking and increased risk for youth smoking initiation and persistence is well-established in the literature. However, much less is known about the relations between parental smoking and other problem behaviors such as youth externalizing behaviors (e.g., oppositional and conduct problems). This study examined the links between current parental cigarette smoking and youth externalizing behaviors, and whether smoking predicted youth externalizing behaviors when concurrently examining demographic, parent, and family characteristics of smoking and behavior problems.

Methods. Data were drawn from The Intergenerational Project (TIP), which is a longitudinal study aimed toward understanding the intergenerational transmission of substance use, mental health, and risky behaviors. The current study used data from 314 families, which included parents and youth (oldest biological child) aged 6-19 across seven waves of data. Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) was used to test associations between current parental smoking, demographics, and time-varying parent and family behaviors (i.e., parental monitoring, harsh parenting, parent antisocial behavior, partner violence, parent-child bonding, and parent internalizing symptoms) and youth externalizing behaviors. We tested two sets of models predicting, respectively, youth oppositional and conduct problems.

Results. Greater parental smoking predicted greater youth externalizing behaviors (B = .04, p < .01 for oppositional problems, and B = .02, p < .001 for conduct problems) even after controlling for parent age at child birth and demographic correlates of smoking. Parental monitoring, parent-child bonding, harsh parenting, partner violence between parents, and parent depressive symptoms also predicted child externalizing problems. Parent depressive symptoms was the only parent characteristic modeled that reduced the link between smoking and externalizing to nonsignificance.

Discussion. The overall pattern of results showed that parental smoking, parenting practices, and family characteristics independently contributed to greater youth externalizing behaviors. Depressive symptoms emerged as a strong predictor of externalizing problems. Study results suggest potential benefits from identifying a range of needs among parents, including smoking cessation, parenting, and mental health interventions, which may have additive effects for preventing or reducing youth problem behaviors.