Do smoking cues make you want to smoke? And is it your parents' fault?

The human, financial, and social costs ofcigarette smoking are considerable, and need to be reducedsubstantially (c.£, the recently launched National TobaccoYouth Campaign). This study investigated responses tosmoking cues, and links to parental style.One aim of the current study was to confirmearlier findings that smoking cues evoke cravings insmokers. Continued confim~ation might then suggest thatminimising exposure to these cues would reduce cigaretteconsumption though that would involve further study. Asecond aim of the study was to examine whetherrecollected parenting styles affected smokers’ responses tosmoking cues. Parenting styles are known to influence theinitiation of smoking but no earlier research has examinedlinks between parenting styles and smoking cues.A sample of 29 smokers and 44 non-smokerscompleted both a researcher-designed questionnaireincluding a series of non-smoking and smoking cues, and aParental Authority Questimmaire. Smokers reported astronger desire to smoke in response to smoking cues thauto neutral cues, confirming results of previous knownresearch. However, no significant support for thehypotheses that parenting styles affected responses tosmoking cues was found. But limited sampling, andmethodological issues, may have impacted the findings.The answers to the two questions are: "Yes", and: "Notdemonstrated: the jury is still out". Farther research isneeded to help reduce the national health and personal cost