In addition, it appears that the late maturing girls’ experiences in the home with regard to decreased closeness and satisfaction in relations with their parents has a stronger association with their cigarette use than is observed with on-time or early maturing girls. This may be because late maturing females remain concerned and involved in family relationships and interactions for a longer period of time compared to other girls and that smoking cigarettes is used as a means to cope with unhappiness and conflict in the parent-child relationship. This interpretation is consistent with a research literature showing that adolescent girls, particularly those with a strong interpersonal orientation, show elevated levels of psychological distress in response to family conflict compared to boys (e.g. Davies & Lindsay, 2004; Gore, Aseltine & Colten, 1993) and with work documenting a link between parenting characterised by low warmth and high hostility with smoking behaviour over and above peer influence and parent substance use (Melby et al., 1993).
