The Effect of Parenting Styles on Smoking in Adolescents: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Abstract

Objective: The Centers for Disease Control recently reported that nearly 45% of adolescents participate In smoking cigarettes. Adolescence is a transitional period in which parental involvement is crucial in the development of healthy behaviors and practices of adolescents. However, little research has been done to show how parenting styles influence adolescent smoking. A systematic review of literature was conducted to describe how parenting styles (i.e., authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive) influence the likelihood of adolescents’ participation in smoking. Methods: Databases used for this literature search were PubMed and PsycINFO. The inclusion criteria included: peer-reviewed journal articles; written in English; published between 2003 through 2014; and identified parenting styles as the main independent variable in the study. Keywords were parenting style, adolescents, and smoking. Results: A total of seven articles met the criteria. Six studies used a cross-sectional design. Only one study was longitudinal. Studies included large sample sizes ranging from n=382-33,408. Four studies collected data only from adolescents, while the remaining three collected data from both the adolescent and their parent. Comparisons among the results were difficult to compare because many of the studies defined and measured parenting styles differently. Also, a few of the studies had extra parenting styles, such as, rejecting and neglecting in addition to the other three generally used. In the five studies that showed significant results, authoritative parenting was associated with a decrease likelihood of adolescent smoking. Conclusions: This review confirms that there is a limiting in understanding of how parenting styles influence the likelihood of adolescents’ participation in smoking. Authoritative parenting seems to the most favorable parenting style to decrease the likelihood of adolescent smoking. Future research should develop a standard tool to measure parenting styles and also create standard definitions for each parenting style that can be used throughout future research.