Maternal characteristics in childhood and smoking at age of 15: Findings from the Czech Republic

Abstract Objective Maternal employment has been shown to influence child’s health, cognitive and behavioural outcomes. There is only a limited number of studies in Central Europe investigating the impact of parental employment on the uptake of smoking in children. The aim of this work is to look at the influence of maternal employment over the whole period of childhood of their children, and other maternal social and behavioural characteristics on the uptake of smoking among children aged 15 in the Czech part of European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood (ELSPAC). Methods There were 971 individuals with complete data on smoking behaviour at age of 15, pattern of maternal employment between child ages 3 and 15, and other covariates including gender, maternal age, maternal education and marital status, household income, and maternal smoking. Logistic regression was used to analyse the association between maternal employment and smoking in their children. Results 37% of adolescents aged 15 years reported trying cigarette more than once. Preliminary results suggest that those whose mothers were in paid work were more likely to be smoking at age 15. When stratified by maternal education, the association between maternal employment and smoking was particularly strong among university educated mothers. Those whose mothers were never employed were 4-times more likely to smoke than those whose mothers were continuously employed between ages 3 and 15. The association between maternal employment and smoking was weaker in other strata of maternal education. Conclusions Although maternal employment might have only a limited role in development of smoking behaviour of young adolescents, the association between maternal employment during childhood and young adolescents’ smoking does exist and is particularly strong among those with university educated mothers. Key messages More than one third of Czech adolescents self-reported repeated attempt to smoke cigarettes or cigars or pipe at the beginning of new Millennium. Data suggest that adolescents whose mothers had not been employed were more likely to smoke than those of employed mothers.