Adolescent children of smokers tend to develop an impulsive pattern of behavior like their smoking parents. This is a cause for their tendency to smoke. This was revealed in a study conducted by Center for Biobehaviorial Health of the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, which is to be published in the coming January issue of Drug and Alcohol Dependence. It is presently available online at ScienceDirect.
The study focuses on the behavioral risk factors for adolescent smoking. These risk factors can increase the possibilities of teenagers getting addicted to smoking even before they light a cigarette.
Dr. Brady Reynolds, the lead author of the study focused on the relationship between smoking and impulsive behavior, particularly delay discounting. Delay discounting indicates an individual’s preference for a lesser, but immediate reward as compared to a larger, but delayed reward. It has played a major role in the behavior patterns of cigarette smoking.
Reynolds observed that cigarette smoking mothers prefer immediate rewards, as compared to nonsmoking mothers. Similarly, children of smoking mothers discounted as compared to children of nonsmoking mothers.
The findings can help campaigns to curtail the smoking habits of adolescents to be more effective if short- term consequences of smoking were emphasized as compared to long term ones.
The researchers, of course, did not state whether the discounting differences were due to genetic factors, smoking while pregnant, or home environmental factors.
The study observed 60 participants belonging to the central Ohio community. Half of the mothers were smokers, while the other half were nonsmokers. All of the children, who were around 12 to 13 years of age did not smoke.
The study highlights the fact that most of the adolescent smokers and those at risk of smoking looked at immediate consequences, while making choices. Obviously, prevention programs that focus on long-term negative consequences of smoking are likely to be less effective as compared to ones that focus on short term effects.
