Can adults help children decide to be smoke-free?

While there is no one way to prevent all children from starting smoking, the good news is that parents, carers and other adults that play an important role in children and young people’s lives can encourage positive, informed choices about smoking. Children whose parents speak with them about smoking are much less likely to start. That’s especially true if a parent smokes.

Why should adults talk to children about smoking?

Each year, tobacco use is associated with over 10,000 deaths  and 128,000 hospital admissions in Scotland. Most adult smokers begin smoking as children, and want to quit. We know that the younger an individual starts to smoke, the more likely they are to be an adult smoker, the heavier they are likely to smoke during adulthood and the more likely they are to fall ill as a result of smoking. Young people don’t often realise how quickly a person can become dependent on nicotine. Talking with them can help them gain confidence in their ability to make healthy, independent choices.

Our Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs: A Parent’s Guide can help to have these conversations.

What can adults do to prevent children and young people from smoking?

1. Keep your home and car smoke-free; children whose parents have made their home and car completely smoke-free are far less likely to start smoking themselves.
2. Start a conversation; an item on the evening news, a film where a character lights up, a family friend who quit, are all great opportunities to start a conversation. Start talking to children about smoking when they are five or six years old and continue through their secondary school years. Many children start smoking at age 11 and some are dependent on nicotine by age 12. Try to keep the conversation relaxed by talking when you are side by side rather than face to face. Or by using open-ended questions to help turn a conversation into a discussion rather than a lecture. e.g.”What would you say if one of your friends started smoking?”
3. Discuss the downside of smoking; often children aren’t able to appreciate how their current behaviour will affect their future health. So talk about the immediate downsides to smoking: less money to spend, bad breath, yellow teeth, smelly hair etc. If your child is physically active and into sports, you could talk about the shortness of breath and the loss of endurance that tobacco causes. If you smoke yourself and regret starting, try explaining what it is about smoking that you don’t like.
4. Correct the myth that most young people smoke; many children try smoking because they think everyone else is doing it but the truth is the majority of people (both young and old) do not smoke. It’s important to help them understand this. Try saying, “I read that most young people in Scotland don’t smoke. What do you think?”
5. Explain how hard it can be to quit; the longer that someone has been smoking, the more difficult they will find it to quit. The nicotine in cigarettes is an extremely addictive drug. Once it enters the body it makes the body want more of it. Sometimes young people try smoking, just to see what it’s like, but then find it difficult to stop.
6. Help children and young people practice resistance skills; the more often a child thinks (and plans) about how they would refuse a cigarette, the more likely they are not to smoke in the long term. Try asking questions such as “what could you say if someone offered you a cigarette and you didn’t want one?” Then get them to write down their response to different situations e.g. if offered a cigarette whilst out with a friend I will say “No thanks, I don’t smoke.” Repeat this exercise regularly.
7. Help children to complete school-based homework assignments; all schools should deliver tobacco prevention activities as part of the curriculum. Sometimes a child will be asked to complete prevention activity at home, and this can be a great opportunity to start a conversation.