Abstract
This study reported the results of a survey on smoking conducted by the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Research Unit of 779 nine year old children in their sample. By the age of nine, 275 (35.3%) of the children had tried to smoke a cigarette, even just a few puffs, and 636 (81.7%) did not have any friends who smoked. Most of these children knew about the adverse effects of smoking on health and most of this information did not come from their parents. They also reported that 63% of the mothers and 75% of the fathers did not give them information on smoking. The findings suggested (1) that health education programmes for the prevention of smoking by children should start prior to age nine (2) that a programme focusing on the negative aspects of smoking on health would probably not be very beneficial and (3) that parents should be recruited as health educators and used more efficiently in giving children more information about smoking.