Flay et al. [16] studied factors that distinguish experimenters
from regular users and found that among the 15
factors studied across four domains (social or interpersonal
factors, attitudinal and belief factors, intrapersonal factors,
and the use of other substances) only parental smoking and
family conflict significantly distinguished these statuses.
This study measured predictors at 7th grade and smoking
status at 12th grade and did not assess the outcome or
predictors dynamically over development. Tucker and colleagues
[17] examined family and other predictors of the
transition to regular smoking among youths who had already
initiated at three transition points: grade 8 to grade 10,
grade 10 to grade 12, and grade 12 to age 23. In addition to
peer and attitudinal predictors, Tucker et al. found that poor
parental support predicted the transition to regular smoking
at all three ages; however, they found no significant effect of
household smoking as measured by whether “an older sibling,
or the adult male and female who are most important to them” smoked. In sum, in the studies that have examined
the effects of family processes on daily smoking, parental
smoking, family poverty, family conflict, parental monitoring,
and parental support have been associated developmentally
with frequent or daily smoking.
The social development model (SDM) [10] that guides
the present study theoretically suggests several additional
mechanisms through which parental and sibling smoking
may affect adolescent smoking. The SDM suggests that
youths who are bonded to others who smoke or have favorable
attitudes toward smoking (e.g., parents or siblings) will
be more likely to initiate and escalate smoking. In addition,
parents may involve their children in their own smoking
behaviors, asking them to retrieve, and even light, their
cigarettes, thus providing opportunities for the child to be
involved in smoking behavior, and providing social rewards
for adolescent involvement in smoking-related behaviors.