Is Your Child Scoring Low Marks, Has Behavioural Issues? Your Smoking Could Be A Reason

The study used data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, which tracks children from birth to monitor their development and well-being. It also surveys them and their parents on a range of cognitive (such as academic) and non-cognitive (such as behavioural) performance measures and records other data such as their National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy test results.

What the study found?

• Across all measures of cognitive skills, children living with non-smoker parents had a higher average score than children living with at least one smoker parent.
• Smoking can reduce academic scores by up to 3%.
• Children with at least one parent who smokes are likely to experience more behavioural issues.
• Smoking can reduce behavioural scores by up to 9%.
• Children from households with at least one smoker were more likely to have lower school attendance and poorer physical health, both of which have adverse consequences on their cognitive and non-cognitive development.
• Maternal smoking in pregnancy has a direct effect on the child’s brain development and birth weight.
• Pre-natal ill-health and sickness in early childhood may affect cognitive, social and emotional outcomes through poorer mental well-being.
• Second-hand smoke exposure at home can also cause numerous health problems in infants and children, such as asthma and ear infections. This could lead them to take more time out of school.
• Children from households with at least one smoker were more likely to have lower school attendance and poorer physical health, both of which have adverse consequences on their cognitive and non-cognitive development.
• Parental smoking had a stronger influence on boys than girls.