Parental influences on adolescents' oral health behavior:: two-year follow-up of the Norwegian Longitudinal Health Behavior Study participants

This study explores the influences of parents' behavior and the parent-child relationship upon adolescents' smoking, oral hygiene performance and intake of sugared foods. In 1993 (Time 1), a representative sample of 709 16-yr-old adolescents in Hordaland County, Norway and their parents completed questionnaires at home. A postal follow-up 2 yr later (Time 2) provided 781 answers. The present analyses included 597 cohort participants who responded on both occasions, and 460 mothers and 399 fathers who replied in 1993. Influence of the parent-child relationship was assessed in terms of two scales: parental support and parental control of the youngsters. Multivariate regression analyses indicated that adolescents' oral health behaviors at Time 1, were each powerful predictors of their corresponding behaviors at Time 2. When the Time 1 parental behavior and the Time 2 parent-child relationship scales were added, mothers' oral hygiene performance and sugar intake accounted for a significant amount of the variance in the corresponding behaviors of adolescents at Time 2. Fathers' smoking and the parental control scale contributed to the prediction of adolescents' Time 2 smoking. These results errand previous ones obtained from cross-sectional studies and give further support to the importance of including the family in prevention campaigns aimed at adolescents.