Learning Objectives: Describe predictors of children's exposure to mothers' environmental tobacco smoke in the home.
Abstract: Mothers who exposed their children under age four to a minimum of three cigarettes per day were enrolled in a randomized controlled trial. Prior to randomization, they participated in three baseline interviews concerning health behaviors including their smoking and children’s exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). At the third baseline, children were exposed to a mean of 4.3 cigarettes per day from mothers at home. We investigated correlates of children’s exposure at the third baseline. Significant correlates, in descending order of Beta weights, were the degree to which other adults in the home made it difficult to protect the child from ETS, home smoking policy, mothers’ heaviness of smoking index (HSI), the number of smokers living in the home (negative), the number of friends, family, and others who had talked to the mother about reducing her child’s ETS exposure, the number of sources of information about ETS reported by the mother (negative), and mother’s perceived harm of ETS exposure on children’s health (negative). These variables accounted for 57% of the variance in exposure, with a multiple R of 0.79 [F(10,77)=12.39, p < .000]. These results define risk factors for which more intensive counseling may be necessary, and indicate that families who expose their children to ETS should be encouraged to develop more stringent home smoking policies and that interventions should target social processes that will support tobacco control.
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