Effects of Perceived Parental Attitudes on Children’s Views of Smoking

Abstract

<strong>Background:</strong> The aim of this study was to examine the effects of perceived parental attitudes on children'sdiscernment of cigarettes. Materials and <br /><strong>Methods</strong>: The study sample consisted of 250 children attending grades6, 7 and 8. Data were collected via a socio-demographic survey questionnaire, the Parental Attitude Scale (PAS)and the Decisional Balance Scale (DBS). Data analysis covered percentages, medians, one-way analysis of variance(ANOVA) and post-hoc tests using a statistical package. <br /><strong>Results</strong>: There were 250 participants; 117 were male, 133were female. The mean age was 13.1±0.98 for the females and 13.3±0.88 for the males. A statistically significantdifference was found in the children's mean scores for ‘pros' subscale on the Decisional Balance Scale (DBS)according to perceived parental attitudes (F=3.172, p=0.025). There were no statistically significant differencesin the DBS ‘cons' subscale scores by perceived parental attitudes. <br /><strong>Conclusions</strong>: It was determined that whileperceived parental attitudes affect children's views on advantages of smoking, they have no effect on children'sviews on its disadvantages.