General parenting, anti-smoking socialization and smoking onset

A theoretical model was tested in which general parenting and parental smoking predicted anti-smoking socialization, which in turn predicted adolescent smoking onset. Participants were 4351 Dutch adolescents between 13 and 15 years of age. In the model, strictness and psychological autonomy granting were related to lower likelihood of smoking onset, and parental smoking was positively related to smoking onset. Involvement and strictness were positively related to anti-smoking socialization, whereas parents who smoke where less likely to be engaged in anti-smoking socialization. In turn, anti-smoking socialization was negatively related to adolescent smoking. To test mediation, an asymptotic resampling method was used (bootstrapping); anti-smoking socialization appeared to mediate the links between involvement and smoking onset, strictness and smoking onset and parental smoking and smoking onset. In addition, parental smoking appeared to moderate the link between anti-smoking socialization and smoking onset. Implications for prevention were addressed.