Introduction
More than 20% of adults in the United States smoke, according to a 2005 report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Over the past 10 years, smoking has continued to decline among older adults. Although for many years smoking rates were not declining among young people, this trend is now changing for the better.
Smoking in Childhood and Adolescence
While smoking rates among high school students have been declining since 1997, the rate of smoking among teenagers is equal to and, in some cases, higher than that of adults.
The younger children start smoking, the more likely they will smoke as an adult. Smoking is often immediately addictive. According to the American Cancer Society, the earlier you start smoking, the more likely you are to develop long-term nicotine addiction.
In the past, advertising was responsible for encouraging some teens to smoke. New regulations have made it much more difficult for advertisers to promote smoking to young people. However, scenes that show people smoking are still common in movies and television shows, often in a positive light. This may be a major influence on the attitude toward smoking in children and adolescents.
To prevent children from smoking, parents should not smoke, and they should tell their child that they disapprove of smoking. One study reported that preschoolers whose parents smoke are more likely to view themselves as future smokers. School children who believed that both their parents strongly disapproved of smoking were less than half as likely to smoke as those kids whose parents did not show as much disapproval towards smoking.
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