After-School Supervision and Adolescent Cigarette Smoking: Contributions of the Setting and Intensity of After-School Self-Care

This paper looks at the independent contributions of the setting and the intensity of after-school self-care to the cigarette smoking behaviors of 2352 ninth graders. We controlled for a variety of correlates of adolescent cigarette smoking that have not been accounted for in existing research. Results indicated that the intensity of the self-care experience was significantly associated with adolescent smoking behavior irrespective of the typical setting of the adolescents' after-school activities. Our findings also indicated that a nonpermissive parenting style, family rule-setting about cigarettes, and especially, in absentia parental monitoring may reduce the likelihood of cigarette smoking among latchkey and nonlatchkey adolescents alike. However, latchkey youth were not any more sensitive to these aspects of parenting than other adolescents. This is consistent with the notion that targeting these aspects of the home lives of all adolescents has the potential to reduce smoking behaviors among latchkey as well as nonlatchkey children.