Department of Sociology

Health inequalities and the role of family in smoking maintenance and cessation: an intergenerational study in the North of England

I am interviewing several generations of current and former smokers in high smoking areas of the North of England to explore how grandparents, parents and children influence each other’s smoking and quitting over the life course.

I am asking people about their smoking and quitting histories. Is it harder to stop smoking as an adult if you have happy childhood memories of your parents or grandparents smoking? Is it easier to stop smoking if your mum or dad quits as well? What kind of support from your family can make the difference between quitting success and failure?

The study is funded by Cancer Research UK. Smoking shortens lives; I hope the findings from this project will help more people stop smoking so that fewer families lose loved ones to smoking-related disease.

I use sociological theory to help my thinking. I look at things like gender roles over the life course, upward social mobility and smoking cessation, social isolation as a barrier to quitting, and saving money as a reason to quit. You can read some articles I have written about these issues here.