Smoking & How to Quit

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For Parents

It's important to teach your children about the dangers of smoking. But we also know how hard it can be to compete with advertising that glamorizes smoking and makes it appear to be the norm. Children and teens try using tobacco for many reasons, including to feel grown up, fit in with their friends, feel good, rebel, and satisfy curiosity. The bottom line is that your children need your help to avoid smoking or to quit if they have started. Parents really can make a difference!

What Parents Can Do

Here are some things you can do to help your children avoid the dangers of smoking:

Talk with your children about the health effects of smoking. Giving examples of family members or friends who have suffered from smoking-related illnesses can make the effects of smoking seem more real.

Keep the lines of communication open. Develop a trusting and comfortable relationship with your children, so you can talk honestly about important issues such as smoking. This includes being a good listener. When your children feel comfortable talking with you, they will be more likely to tell you if they've started smoking or are being pressured to smoke.

Spend quality time with your children. Eating meals together is a great way to relax and talk about the day. Did you know that children whose families eat together at least five times a week are less likely to be involved with drugs and alcohol?

Get to know your children's friends and how your children are spending their time. This will help you know when to step in and give your children guidance and support.

Teach your children how to say NO to tobacco. Every day, your children may be faced with opportunities to use tobacco. Talk with them about ways they can tell their friends that they don't want to smoke.

Be a good role model—don't smoke and quit if you do! Teens who have smoking parents are more likely to smoke themselves. What you do affects your children more than you might think.

Set rules and stick by them. Set curfews, which can help kids handle peer pressure to smoke.

Praise your children regularly and show affection. This will help your children to believe in themselves and feel good about who they are.

Talk to your children about smoking in the media. Smoking may look cool in movies or in advertisements, but the media doesn’t tell the whole story. They don’t show the health problems or the yellow teeth, smelly breath, and wrinkled skin caused by smoking.

Support tax hikes on cigarettes. A high price for cigarettes may be the most effective way to prevent teens from becoming regular smokers. One study found that a 10 percent increase in the price of cigarettes would decrease the number of children who started smoking by 3 to 10 percent.

Encourage your state to start a tobacco control program. Such a program should include school classes at every grade level about the dangers of smoking, programs to help teens quit smoking, and enforcing the laws that prevent stores from selling tobacco to teens. It should also include an anti-tobacco media campaign for teens that shows how the tobacco industry targets them as potential smokers. When Florida adopted a tobacco control program with all these elements, smoking rates dropped by 47 percent among middle school students and 30 percent among high school students.

Additional Information on For Parents:

Publications

Cigarette and Marijuana Smoke Hurts Young Lungs - This publication provides information on flavored cigarettes, an emerging trend among teenagers. It explains what these new products are and how they may tempt teens to try smoking.

http://family.samhsa.gov/monitor/flavcig.aspx

For Parents & Caregivers: Drugs, Alcohol, and Smoking - This page, from girlshealth.gov, lists resources to help you talk to your daughter about alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes.

www.girlshealth.gov/parents/parentssubstance/index.cfm

Got a Minute? Give It to Your Kid - This social marketing kit tackles teen tobacco use by providing information on how to talk with teens. Every day, 6,000 youth try cigarettes for the first time and one out of three smokers will die from the addiction. Preteens who report they regularly eat meals, follow a family calendar, and discuss free-time activities with their parents are less likely to smoke, and more likely to live longer, healthier lives.

http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/tobacco_control_programs/campaigns_events/got_a_minute/parenting.htm...

Parenting Skills: 21 Tips & Ideas to Help You Make a Difference - This concise e-book offers straightforward tips to develop parenting skills. There are ideas to help parents get involved with their child's daily routine and establish ground rules with their child.

http://ncadi.samhsa.gov/govpubs/PHD826/

Take the Smoke-free Homes Pledge - This online-pledge encourages parents to maintain a smoke-free home for their children.

http://www.epa.gov/smokefree/pledge/index.html

Child and Teen Tobacco Use (Copyright © ACS) - This fact sheet provides statistical information on the prevalence of tobacco use among middle and high school students. It describes the increase in use of alternative tobacco products such as clove cigarettes, bidis, and hookah smoking. It also explains what parents can do to prevent their children from using tobacco and how to help them quit.

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/content/PED_10_2X_Child_and_Teen_Tobacco_Use.asp?sitearea=PED...

How Parents Can Protect Their Kids From Becoming Addicted Smokers (Copyright © Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids) - This publication explains how it is your role, as a parent, to be a good anti-smoking role model. It gives tips on how to talk to your children about the effects of smoking and how it is portrayed in the media. It also discusses how to get involved in local and state efforts to reduce tobacco use.

http://tobaccofreekids.org/research/factsheets/pdf/0152.pdf

Kids and Smoking (Copyright © The Nemours Foundation) - This fact sheet, designed for parents, provides a brief overview of tobacco use. It gives tips on how you can prevent your children from using tobacco, what the signs of tobacco use are, what you can do if your child is smoking, and how to respond if you are a smoker.

http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/positive/talk/smoking.html

Smoking and Teens Fact Sheet (Copyright © ALA) - This publication contains facts on the effects of smoking during childhood and adolescence, as well as statistics on the current usage of tobacco among this age group in the United States.

http://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=39871

Organizations

= Indicates Federal Resources

Content last updated March 19, 2008.