Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey (SALSUS): smoking report 2018

5 Family and home environment

Family attitudes to smoking 

It was most common for 15 year old regular smokers to say that their family did not know that they smoked (39%). A further 27% reported that their family tried to persuade them not to smoke (27%). Only a small proportion (8%) said that their family encouraged them to smoke (Figure 5.1). 

There were no changes in family attitudes to smoking from 2015 to 2018. 

Figure 5.1: Family attitudes to smoking among 15 year old regular smokers (2018)

Q. How do your family/the people you live with feel about you smoking? 

Base: 15 year old regular smokers (797)

Allowed to smoke at home

16% of 15 year old regular smokers were allowed to smoke in the house and a further 18% were allowed to smoke, but only outside. 55% reported that they were not allowed to smoke in their home^[11] (Figure 5.2). 

There were no changes from 2015.

Figure 5.2: Whether 15 year old regular smokers are allowed to smoke at home (2018)

Q. Are you allowed to smoke at home if you want to?

Base: 15 year old regular smokers (800)

Exposure to secondhand smoke

At home

Overall, 15% of pupils said that someone smoked inside their home every day/most days and a further 12% said it happened sometimes. 74% indicated that no-one ever smoked inside their home. 

Between 2015 and 2018, the proportion of pupils exposed to smoke at home decreased across both age groups. The proportion of pupils exposed every day/most days dropped by two percentage points among 13 year olds (16% to 14%) and four percentage points among 15 year olds (19% to 15%) (Figure 5.3). Additionally, the proportion of pupils never exposed to smoke at home increased by four percentage points among 13 year olds (69% to 73%) and 6 percentage points among 15 year olds (69% to 75%).

Figure 5.3: Exposure to smoke at home, by age and year (2015-2018)

Q. Does anyone smoke inside your home? Please include times when someone smokes out of a window or at/just outside an open door.

Base: all pupils (for full base sizes please see Appendix A)

In a car

Overall, 2% of pupils said that, when they were travelling by car, someone was smoking on all/most journeys and a further 7% said this happened sometimes. 89% said it never happened.

Between 2015 and 2018, the proportion of pupils exposed to smoke in a car on all/most journeys decreased from 4% in 2015 to 2% in 2018 (Figure 5.4). 

Figure 5.4: Exposure to smoke in cars, by age and year (2015-2018)

Q. When you are travelling by car, does anyone smoke inside the car? Please include times when someone smokes in the car with the windows open.

Base: all pupils (for full base sizes please see Appendix A)

Parental and sibling smoking

In 2018, 19% of 13 year olds and 20% of 15 year olds reported having at least one parent who smokes daily. 6% of 13 year olds and 9% of 15 year olds reported having at least one sibling who smokes daily.

Whether pupils smoked was linked with whether their parents and/or siblings smoked. Among 15 year olds, regular smokers were more likely than occasional smokers, and much more likely than non-smokers, to have at least one parent or a sibling who smoked daily. Occasional smokers were also much more likely than non-smokers to have at least one parent or a sibling who smoked daily (Figures 5.5 and 5.6).

The proportion of pupils with at least one parent or sibling who smokes daily has more than halved since 2002, declining markedly from 2010. However, the rate of change for the latter has plateaued since 2015 (Figures 5.7 and 5.8) in line with smoking prevalence among young people (Figure 2.1). 

Figure 5.5: Whether parents of 15 year olds smoke, by smoking status (2018)^[12]

Q. How often do each of the following people smoke? (Parent)

Base: 15 year old regular smokers (788), 15 year old occasional smokers (569), 15 year old non-smokers (8,927) 

Figure 5.6: Whether a sibling smokes (both ages), by smoking status (2018)

Q. How often do each of the following people smoke? (Sibling)

Base: Regular smokers (987), Occasional smokers (701), Non-smokers (19,595) 

Figure 5.7: Trends in proportion of pupils with at least one parent who smokes daily, by age (2002-2018)

Q. How often do each of the following people smoke? (Parent)

Base: all pupils (for full base sizes please see Appendix A)

Figure 5.8: Trends in proportion of pupils with at least one sibling who smokes daily, by age (2002-2018)

Q. How often do each of the following people smoke? (Sibling)

Base: all pupils (for full base sizes please see Appendix A)

Friends smoking

Among both age groups, regular smokers were much more likely than non-smokers to say that their friends smoked (Figure 5.9).

In line with the reduced prevalence of smoking, the proportion of all pupils who said that more than half their friends smoked decreased between 2002 and 2013. Following a period of no change from 2013 to 2015, there has now been an increase in this figure across both age groups in 2018 (Figure 5.10).

There were few gender differences, however more girls than boys reported that none of their friends smoked (47% of girls compared to 41% of boys).

Figure 5.9: Whether friends smoke, by age and smoking status (2018)

Q. What about your friends – how many of them smoke?

Base: 13 year old non-smokers (11,420), 13 year old regular smokers (235), 15 year old non-smokers (8,960), 15 year olds regular smokers (811)

Figure 5.10: Trends in the proportion of pupils who say that more than half their friends smoke, by age (2002-2018)

Q. What about your friends – how many of them smoke?

Base: all pupils (for full base sizes please see Appendix A)