Background: Motivating cessation among young smokers is an important challenge for smoking reduction programs. This research examines the role of perceived illness in smoking parents as a motivator for cessation in young smokers.
Methods: Two nationally representative samples of young U.S. smokers (ages 14 to 22 and 18 to 25 in 2002) assessed perceptions of parent health, quit intentions, risk perceptions and affective expectations for smoking to test the hypothesis that perceived illness in smoking parents motivates quitting by linking unfavorable emotional reactions to the smoking experience.
Results: Approximately 88% of young smokers reported that parents who smoked were in less than very good health compared to 54% of smokers whose parents did not smoke. Unlike young smokers whose parents did not smoke, the quit intentions of those whose parents smoked were directly related to the perceived ill health of their parents. Affective expectations rather than perceived risk of smoking appeared to mediate these relations.
Conclusion: Youth smoking cessation programs could benefit from targeting smokers whose parents smoke and are likely to show the long-term effects of smoking-related illness.