Research Review

Adolescent Smoking May Be Influenced by Mothers' Smoking or Depression

A new study reveals that adolescents aged 12 to 17 living with mothers who are current smokers or who have had a major depressive episode in the past year are far more likely to smoke than adolescents not living under these circumstances.

The new study shows that adolescents living with mothers who currently smoke were nearly three times more likely to take up smoking than adolescents living with nonsmoking mothers (16.9% vs. 5.8%). Similarly, adolescents living with mothers who have suffered from a major depressive episode in the past year were almost twice as likely to take up smoking as adolescents not living in that situation (14.3% vs. 7.9%).

In addition, the study revealed adolescents living with mothers who had a major depressive episode and were current smokers were more than four times more likely to smoke than adolescents living with mothers who had neither of these conditions (25.3% vs. 5.6%).

More than 25% of adolescents live with mothers who currently smoke and nearly 10% live with mothers who have experienced a major depressive episode in the past year. About 3% of all adolescents live with mothers with both of these conditions.

These new data occur against the backdrop of an overall decline in past month smoking rates among adolescents—from 13% in 2002 to 9.3% in 2008. Despite this progress, however, an estimated 1.4 million persons aged 11 to 17 started smoking in the in the past 12 months.

— Source: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration