Familial contribution to intergenerational psychosocial transmission of use of tobacco products
Authors: Yasmin Shahina , KrishnaMurthy Archana , Komarla Balaji Shilpashree , Rashid Mumin 
Published: September 2024

INTRODUCTION:

Family is considered to be the first and the most important child development and socialization bond. Parental use of tobacco increases the likelihood that children will also engage in uptake of similar habit and hence this study was conducted with the aim to assess the relationship between parental bonding and tobacco-specific familial practices as predictors of tobacco usage in adults.

AIM:

To assess the familial contribution to intergenerational psychosocial transmission of tobacco use among outpatients visiting The Oxford Dental College, Bengaluru.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

A case–control study was conducted among 430 patients coming to the out-patient section in the Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology in a Dental College in Bengaluru, which included 215 tobacco users and 215 non-tobacco users. Study participants aged between 15 and 25 years and were age and gender matched in the ratio of 1:1. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect information regarding their self-tobacco use, form of use, parental and grandparental tobacco use. Study participants_ perception of the mother_s and father_s parenting behavior was assessed using modified version of the parental bonding instrument and assessment of the study participants nicotine dependency was done using the Parental Bonding Instrument(PBI).

RESULTS:

Among the 215 study participants in each group, the distributions of male and female participants were 212 (98.6%) and three (1.4%), respectively, with a mean age of 22.9 ± 3.05 years and the participants had high dependency with mean FTND score of 5.23 ± 2.77 and 5.57 ± 4.0 for the smoking and smokeless form, respectively. Results of the univariate logistic regression showed that study participants with paternal tobacco habit were 5.28 times more likely to adopt the tobacco habit compared to the study participants without paternal tobacco use (OR = 5.28, 95% CI: 2.70–10.30) and study participants with paternal grandfather tobacco use were 1.57 times (OR = 1.57, 95% CI: 1.47–2.74) more likely to develop the tobacco habit than the study participants without paternal grandfather tobacco use and both the association was found to be statistically highly significant (P < 0.001). Multivariate linear regression analysis showed that the study participants who had higher maternal strictness were 0.077 less likely [OR= −0.077, 95% CI: −0.146–(−0.008)] to develop the tobacco habit compared to the study participants with lower maternal strictness which was found to be statistically significant (P = 0.030*) and participants with higher paternal warmth were 0.097 times less likely to adopt the tobacco habit compared to study participants with lower paternal warmth [OR= −0.097, 95% CI: −0.097 [−0.190–(−0.005)] which was found to be statistically significant (P = 0.040*).

CONCLUSION:

For an effective tobacco control program among tobacco users, counseling of participants_ father and mother should be done simultaneously. Further, anti-tobacco activities should emphasize and make parents realize the importance the family plays in the development of tobacco behavior through implicit influences such as the level of parental control of their children_s behavior and make the family members understand the way in which they deal with tobacco at home will have an impact on their child tobacco behavior.