A recent study has revealed one more reason for people to quit smoking and this one has to do with the health of their children – it could be that the habit of smoking can pass from father to son, and similarly from mother to daughter.
The study examined smoking habits within families and data was sourced from British Household Panel Survey conducted between the years 1994 and 2002. The study of particulars is related to the spread of smoking habits from generation to generation.
The study found that in households where both parents smoked, the son had a 24% higher chance of becoming a smoker himself. If however both parents did not smoke that risk of the son taking up the habit reduced to half, or about 12%.
Similarly for daughters as well, the risk of taking up the habit was about 23% in households where parents smoked, but that risk fell to 12% when neither parent had the habit.
The study also found that kids tend to imitate the respective gender of parent – in other words, boys tend to imitate dads and girls tend to imitate moms. Obviously smoking is not a habit that one wants a child to pick up from a parent.
