Maternal socialization of adolescent smoking: Intergenerational transmission of smoking-related beliefs

A longitudinal, multigenerational design was used to test the intergenerational transmission of smoking and the hypothesized correlated transmission of smoking-related beliefs. The study assessed a sample of 192 mother-adolescent pairs to test whether mothers' beliefs about smoking were related to their children's beliefs and whether mothers' beliefs could account for the relation between mother and child smoking. Structural equation modeling showed strong evidence for the intergenerational transmission of smoking, and smoking-related beliefs were related to smoking in both generations. However, there was no evidence for the intergenerational transmission of smoking-related beliefs. Rather, adolescents' beliefs were related to their own smoking experience and to their mothers' smoking behavior. These results suggest that parents influence their children more through their behavior than through the beliefs that they hold.