JASON CARROLL, CNN ANCHOR: We want to give you a story about young girls and smoking. A new study finds that girls are more likely to be pressured into drinking and smoking than boys. And for both boys and girls, peer pressure has an impact at an early age. CNN's Christy Feig has some advice from experts on how you can keep your teen from picking up bad habits.</s>CHRISTY FEIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By all accounts, who young people hang around plays a big factor in whether they start smoking and drinking.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have been smoking since I was 11. And, well, started with that because of my friends.</s>FEIG: And he fits right into the findings of one of the first studies to survey over 4,000 middle school students to see where teens' attitudes towards smoking and drinking first develop.</s>BRUCE SIMONS-MORTON, NATIONAL INST. OF HEALTH: Affiliating with other youth who smoke or drink was the most powerful peer influence. Indeed, sixth, seventh and eighth graders were nine times more likely to smoke, and five times more likely to drink if they had two or more friends who smoke and drank.</s>FEIG: This association is even stronger than if they were directly offered a cigarette or a drink. Girls are more likely than boys to be influenced by their peers, a trend that carries over to high school. So what is a parent to do? The study found several things: knowing who their kids play with and what they do; keeping expectations high for their children, the study shows young people will try to reach them; and holding them in high regard, respecting their opinions and listening to them helps most children behave better.</s>SIMONS-MORTON: Teens who reported that their parents were highly involved in their lives were about half as likely to smoke or drink than youth who felt their parents were not very involved.</s>FEIG: And it's never too early to start. Researchers say parents may need to pay attention to their kids' friends as early as the sixth grade. Christy Feig, CNN, Washington.
New Study Reveals Teen Attitudes Toward Smoking and Drinking