The Moderating Roleof Parental Smoking on their Children’s Attitudes Toward Smoking among a Predominantly Minority Sample: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

In general having a parent who smokes or smoked is a strong and consistent predictor of smoking initiation among their children while authoritative

parenting style, open communication that demonstrates mutual respect between child and parent, and parental expectations not to smoke are protective. It has been hypothesized that parental smoking affects their children’s smoking initiation through both imitation of the behavior and effects on attitudes toward smoking. The goals of the current analysis were to examine these two potential mechanisms.