Cigarette smoking in the adolescent children of drug-abusing fathers

Abstract

Objective: This study examined the longitudinal predictors of cigarette smoking in a sample of at-risk adolescents whose fathers were drug abusers (N = 296).

Methods: At time 1, structured interviews were administered, separately and in private, to male and female youth (X age = 16.3) and their fathers; adolescents were reinterviewed approximately 1 year later (at time 2). Structural equation modeling was used to examine the interrelationship of time 1 paternal tobacco and illicit drug use, father-child relations, adolescent psychological adjustment, and peer group factors and adolescent smoking at time 2. A supplementary analysis assessed the same model with control on the adolescent's age, gender, frequency of contact with the father, and the father's treatment status.

Results: The structural equation model showed a mediational pathway linking paternal tobacco and drug use to a weak and conflictual father-child relationship, which was associated with greater adolescent maladjustment, which in turn was related to deviant peer affiliations, which predicted adolescent smoking at time 2. There was also a direct path from paternal tobacco and drug use to adolescent time 2 smoking. The supplementary analysis found no significant differences between the models with and without control.

Conclusions: Findings provide evidence of the mechanisms that underlie the association between paternal drug use characteristics and smoking in the adolescent child. Clinical implications suggest the importance of the father-child relationship to smoking prevention programs for at-risk youth.