Children of Parents Who Smoke

¶ … children of parents who smoke tend to become smokers?

We all know that smoking offers tremendous effect to the body. Scientific researches have proven that cigarettes contain more than 4,000 chemicals, including at least 40 that cause cancer. They also contain nicotine, a substance that gets people "addicted" or "hooked" on cigarettes. In fact, the nicotine in cigarettes is as addictive as heroin or cocaine. Tobacco smoking is also responsible for nearly all cases of a chronic breathing obstruction known as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). There are also enough evidences showing that lung cancer is the disease of the smoker. Not only this, smoking is found to have a great impact on the smoker's physical appearance. Studies show that many people start smoking in their teens to fit in and look cool, but as they get older, they spend hundreds of pounds a year on cosmetics to slow or disguise the ageing process. As an adult smoker, eventually one will find him/herself with wrinkles around the eyes and mouth, dry, unhealthy, older-looking, faster-aging skin, caused by poor circulation and low oxygen levels in the blood, unattractive, tobacco-stained hands and yellowish, brownish tobacco-stained teeth, gum disease and bad breath (http://www.click2quit.co.uk/why_quit/WQ01i.asp,2004).

When somebody smokes, there is a big probability that other person could smell or inhale the same smoke that he/she is using. This is called passive smoking. Passive smoking is of two types. One is passive smoking from the burning end of the cigarette (side stream smoke). The other one is from a smoke which has been inhaled and then exhaled by the smoker (mainstream smoke).

The risk of lung cancer is increased by between 20-30% if you are regularly exposed to passive smoking, and 25% increased risk of heart disease.

Passive smoking increases the risk of strokes in non-smokers by 82%.

The independent scientific committee on smoking stated in 1988 that about 300 of the 4000 lung cancer deaths in the UK each year are due to passive smoking, which only means that there could nearly be one person per day. Aside from these, passive smoking can also make your hair and clothes stink.

It can cause eye irritations, headaches, coughs, sore throats, dizziness and nausea. It can also aggravate asthma (http://www.valmillscounselling.co.uk/passive_smoking.htm,2004).

Despite these facts, smoking is still one of the most common vice among people nowadays. More and more people are becoming "addicted" to it, this include youngsters and the old ones. In the U.S. alone, statistics shows that 80% of smokers start smoking before they reach the age of 21 (http://unr.edu/homepage/shubinsk/whosmok1.html,1999). Furthermore, there are also various studies that were conducted proving that one in five high school seniors smoke daily and 70% of the total high school student population has tried cigarettes, while 3000 teenagers start smoking each day (http://unr.edu/homepage/shubinsk/whosmok1.html,1999).

With this continuously rising number of smoking children or teenagers, it has become a big question to many as to what prompted such youngsters to become smokers. Has it something to do with their smoker parents? Or are there other factors that affects the children/teenagers tendency to become smokers?

Problems of the Study

This study is conducted in order to find answer to the problem: "Do children of parents who smoke tend to become smokers?" Specifically, this paper is aimed at answering the following problems:

What is the current trend or statistics regarding the number of parent smokers vs. The number of children smokers?

How many among the children smokers have parents who are smokers too?

What are the impacts to children when parents are smokers?

How do these smoking children learn such vice?

Objectives of the Study

Generally, this research study aims to find out if the children of parents smokers tend to become smokers too. Meanwhile the specific objectives of this study are to:

Find out the epidemiology of children/teenagers who are into smoking vs. The epidemiology of parents who are smokers themselves. This can be identified by studying the current statistics related to parent and children smokers all over the world. This will also verify the fact that the number of teenagers who are smoking at an early age is continuously rising.

Determine the relationship between tendencies of children to smoke because of their smoker parents. This can be ascertain through the reviews of literature which will provide information if it has been really proven that parents who smokes trigger off the children to become smokers too.

Analyze the impact of parent smokers to the psychological and intellectual well being of the children. This can be done through the interviews with the parents and the children. Parents' awareness regarding the way they affect their children coupled with the smoker children's admittance as to how they started smoking will play an important role in successfully analyzing the impacts of smoker parents to the children.

Evaluate all the factors that stimulate the children to try and start smoking. This is equally important for there are a number of factors that induce the children to smoke. Such information will be presented through the interview and further probing with the children who will be subjected for interview.

Hypothesis

This study hypothesized that smoker parents are one of the strongest factor why children tend to become smokers too. Parents who smoke are also among the treason why children learn to smoke even at an early age. This is because since from the very beginning, the child can see that one or both of his/her parents are smoking thereby creating an impression in the child's young mind that smoking is part of the normal life.

Significance of the Study

The result of this study will provide ample information for the parents and children regarding the impact of smoking. Parents and children will both understand the factors affecting their tendency to smoke. By knowing such will also help them to understand hw they can overcome their seemingly 'addiction' to cigarette.

Moreover, policy makers, educators and even medical practitioners and psychological advisors will also benefit from this study. This can be achieved in the way that whatever result that this paper will come up, will provide enough background information regarding parents who are smoking and its effects to the psychological, emotional and intellectual status of the children. Other factors that affects the youngsters' or the teenagers' tendency to become smokers will also be revealed.

By understanding this will enable them to properly educate, advice or establish guidelines the public regarding smoking.

Lastly, this study will play a pivotal role to future research undertaking related to smoking. This can serve as a guide or basis for other interested researchers particularly on the way they will conduct their own research. Results of this study can also serve as a reference material regarding smoking and its impact to people.

Subjects for Study

There have been a number of credible journals, reports and articles that tackles about the smoking, specifically parents and children who smoke.

This study will conduct a literature review regarding parents and children smokers. Literatures that will be subjected for review and analysis will be limited to those which have been published recently, preferably from the years 1990 up to the present.

However, a better analysis of the study can also be achieved through actual interviews or surveys from the parents or the children who are into smoking. Hence, a series of interview with the parents and teenagers who smoke will also be conducted. Parents will be asked as to their perception regarding the impact of their smoking to their children's psychological status. This is to determine their point-of-view regarding the possibility that their smoking may affect their children's tendency to become smokers too in the near future.

Teenagers on the other hand, will be asked regarding how they learn to smoke. Further probing with the teenagers will also be done in order to find out the real factors that prompted these youngsters to smoke.

Limitations of the Study

This study will be done through research reviews and interviews with parent smokers. The literature review will be limited to the most current publication years only. Researches printed during the early years (such as in the 80's 70's, etc.) will not be used anymore.

In the same manner, the interview will be limited to one area alone where there is high number of smokers. Only the parent smokers will define which teenagers will be subjected for interview. Parents who does not smoke and teenagers who smoke but parents are not smokers will not be subjected for the interview. More so, the teenagers ages 15 and above are the only ones who will be asked to answer the questions. It is assumed that there are children/teenagers below 15 years old who are already smoking, but they too, will not be included in this research.

Ethical Considerations

One of the ethical considerations for this study is the parents' and teenagers' consent to be used as subjects of this study. Some parents may ask their identity not to be disclosed. The same thing may happen to the teenager respondents and the researcher must adhere to such request. At any rate, the identity of the subjects may not be significant. What will be needed are basic demographic information (such as age, level of family income etc.), and the direct answers to the survey questions.

A second ethical consideration is the use of other research paper or reports as references. But this can be easily solved by citing all the references that I will be using though a credible citation style. This then shows that the research abides with the copyright law of those published journals, articles and/or reports.

Measurement

Summary of the reviewed literature will serve as one major factor for the conclusion. This will provide amble information regarding the subject matter. From the said literature review, statistics and other vital information regarding parent smokers and children smokers will be revealed. This information is not limited from one country or area alone, because for sure, the epidemiology and smokers-related information will involve a lot of countries around the globe.

Meanwhile, the responses of the interviewees will also be summarized. The responses will be classified in relation to the number of respondents/interviewees. Basically in the end of the interview, two major classifications will be achieved:

The respondents (parents or teenagers) who will disclose that they become smokers because they have seen it from their own parents

The respondents (parents and teenagers) who will reveal that they are not affected in anyway of their smoker parents

Data Collection Methods

This research study will be done in two separate ways. First of which is the literature review which will be done through web and library research. The credible journals, researches and reports that will be collected related to the study are those which have been printed or published during the years 1990 to the present.