Evaluation of a smoking prevention program for smoking parents of asthmatic children

The aim of the project is to adapt and test a highly innovative and successfully tested program in the U.S. for smoking mothers of primary school children in a sample of Dutch parents of children with asthmatic symptoms. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted among smoking mothers of 9-11 year-olds, and short- and long-term assessments on child smoking and anti-smoking socialization will be conducted.

Two hypotheses will be tested. First, we expect that parents involved in the program (as compared to controls) will be more involved in constructive communication on smoking topics, have more confidence in discussing smoking matters and greater efficacy to prevent their children from smoking, set and keep stricter household rules against smoking, establish a non-smoking contract with their children, and are more likely to monitor children’s and peers’ smoking-related activities.



Second, we expect that children of smoking parents involved in this program will be less likely to engage in smoking. Based on the findings of a successful RCT carried out in the US, we expect that relative to controls, children in the intervention condition will be less likely to experiment with smoking at follow-up measurements.

Baseline, 6, 12, 24, 36 months

The objective of the present study is to test an intervention program focusing on anti-smoking socialization skills for smoking parents of primary school children: ‘Smoke-free Kids’.

Smoke-free Kids is a home-based program and consists of a series of six activity guides for parents and children to complete together. These guides will be mailed to their homes every month. The intervention also includes tip sheets focusing on parenting skills and a series of newsletters for children.

For the control group an alternative program will be used based on facts. These factsheets provide knowledge about youth smoking and focuses parents attention on macro level variable relevant to youth smoking by not targeted by treatment versions of the program.