Parent-Child Relationship and Smoking Among College Students: Role of Parents in Females’ and Males’ Smoking Behavior

Objective: Youth smoking has long been a major concern at individual, familial, and national levels. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the role of parent-child relationship in the smoking behavior and smoking intensity among college students. We also aimed to investigate gender-specific variations in the association between mother-child and father-child relationships and smoking behavior and its intensity among female and male college students. Methods: The sample consisted of college students (N=242: 142 smokers, 99 nonsmokers) who were selected using snowball sampling method among the students of Guilan University. Participants completed the parent-child relationship survey and Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence. Binary and multinomial logistic regressions were used for analyzing. Results: Results showed that mother-child relationship, but not father-child relationship, was the significant predictor of smoking status. Also, mother-child relationship could predict low to moderate levels of dependence on nicotine. Finally, among male students, mother-child relationship was the significant predictor of smoking. Neither mother-child nor father-child relationships were the significant predictors of smoking status among female students. Conclusion: Further research is needed to clear our understanding of gender-specific correlates of smoking among youth.