A new study from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln sheds light on how parental smoking shapes adolescents’ attitudes and use of both traditional cigarettes and e‑cigarettes, finding that fathers’ behaviors may play a more influential role than those of mothers.
Led by Alex Mason, a professor in the Department of Child, Youth and Family Studies, the research tracked 230 children from preschool through adolescence, examining how repeated exposure to smoking behaviors within the home affects later smoking and vaping behaviors by teens. The study collected self-reports on parental smoking habits during early childhood, including retrospective accounts of smoking during pregnancy, and later assessed teens’ attitudes toward and use of cigarettes and vaping devices.
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The findings show that cumulative exposure to parental smoking over time significantly increases the likelihood that adolescents will both view smoking and vaping more favorably and engage in those behaviors themselves.
“With repeated exposure, as we suggest here, adolescents develop attitudes that are favorable to the substance, and then that results in smoking and vaping behaviors,” Mason said.
Most surprisingly, the researchers also found that a father’s smoking habits were more significantly linked to adolescent attitudes and use of cigarettes and e‑cigarettes.
“I think our initial hunch would have been that mothers, more likely in the caregiving role and with prenatal exposure, would have more effect,” Mason said. “The father's role appears to be more salient — they're observing their father's smoking and being influenced by their father's attitudes.”
Mason pointed out that research into teen alcohol use follows a similar pattern, with paternal drinking exerting a stronger influence on future use.
The research comes at a time when youth vaping use is trending upward. Data from the Nebraska High School Youth Tobacco Survey show that while cigarette use among high school students has dropped significantly, e‑cigarette use has climbed — from 19% reporting ever using e‑cigarettes in 2015 to 30% in 2022.
The 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey found that 19% of students reported having used a tobacco product at some point, and about one in 10 high school students identified as current users. Vaping products are the most used product.
“Cigarette smoking plummeted to historic lows in terms of prevalence,” Mason said. “But of course, they quickly replaced that behavior with something else. Of the substances we’ve measured in our research — and we’ve assessed many others — by a long shot, vaping was the most prevalent, and we were seeing pretty high levels of vaping in kids at a young age.”
So what can parents do?
Mason said this new research shows that early family intervention is needed to prevent children from becoming consumers of nicotine and tobacco products. He suggested, based on additional research literature, that parents who smoke or vape should avoid doing so in the presence of children and should have clear household rules and expectations that substance use is illegal and harmful.
Mason is developing a new proposal for research into the effects of vaping on teens’ brain development. He noted that if children start vaping in their middle school or early teen years, by the time they graduate high school, they will have consumed the products for six or seven years.
“We have very little understanding of what the consequences of that is for brain development,” he said. “It’s kind of an absurd experiment with our children’s health.”
