The socio-cultural environment is an important factor involved with the onset of
smoking during adolescence. Initiation of cigarette smoking occurs almost
exclusively during this stage. In this context we aimed to analyze the
association of school and family factors with adolescent smoking by a
cross-sectional study of 16 secondary schools randomly selected from the Balearic
Islands involved 3673 students and 530 teachers. The prevalence of regular
smoking (at least one cigarette per week) was 4.8% among first year students,
11.6% among second year students, 14.1% among third year students, 20.9% among
fourth year students and 22% among teachers. Among first and second year
students, there were independent associations between regular smoking and
adolescents perception of being allowed to smoke at home, belonging to a single
parent family, poor relationship with parents, poor academic performance, lack of
interest in studies and teachers perception of smoking in the presence of
pupils. Among third and fourth year students, there were independent associations
between regular smoking and poor relationship with parents, adolescents
perception of being allowed to smoke at home, poor academic performance, lack of
control over student misbehavior and the school attended. The school policies and
practices affect student related health behavior regarding smoking, independent
of individual and family factors