Most kids want to grow up to be just like their parents. Unfortunately, that includes becoming a smoker if one or both parents are chained to cigarettes.
According to two separate studies, children raised in families with smokers are more likely to take up the habit themselves, leading the Health Promotion Board to focus its latest anti-smoking campaign on parental influence.
The HPB found in a 2006 Student Health Survey that more than half of youth smokers had at least one parent who smoked, as compared to the non-smokers.
The Singapore findings matched a study by Dartmouth College on the attitudes of preschoolers towards tobacco and alcohol use.
The US study carried out through a role play involving a miniature grocery store, found that the children of smokers were four times more likely to purchase cigarettes, as compared to children with non-smoker parents.
The study conducted among 126 children also found that although the children understood the harms of cigarette smoking, they had a desire to try smoking.
Since parents can impact future young smokers, Singapore’s National Smoking Control Campaign starting 23 July will see the spotlight being turned on the behaviour of adults.
“Parents who smoke may know that their habit can affect the health and development of their child” said V Prema, Deputy Director of HPB’s Youth Health Division.
This is the first time HPB is reaching out to parents in its anti-smoking campaign since as Ms Prema pointed out, parents may not be aware that their habits can influence their child’s future behaviour.
“We hope to encourage parents who smoke to quit the habit early in a bid to reduce the possibility of their children picking it up in future” she said.
The campaign will include media advertisements as well as help services such as a toll-free confidential QuitLine telephone service, a workplace-based programme and smoking cessation services through Nicotine Replacement Treatment (NRT). – (CNA)
