The influence of parental attitude and behavior on early adolescent cigarette smoking.

In 1983, Nolte and colleagues reported parental attitude may be more powerful than parental behavior in shaping adolescent cigarette smoking behavior. This study replicates the finding of Nolte et al and suggests parents need to be actively recruited to discourage their children from smoking, regardless of their own behavior. Fewer parents actively discourage youth smoking today than in 1983, a possible unfortunate result from an apparently successful effort to change the public attitude toward cigarette smoking.