Household smoking bans and adolescents' perceived prevalence of smoking and social acceptability of smoking

Among adolescents, a household smoking ban was associated with a lower perceived prevalence of adult smoking in their communities and more negative attitudes about the social acceptability of smoking, two factors that affect the likelihood of smoking initiation. Household smoking bans had these effects even in the presence of two parental factors known to encourage adolescent smoking initiation (parental smoking and lack of perceived parental disapproval of youth tobacco use). This provides an additional rationale for promoting household smoking bans to parents.