Youth of parents who are addicted to nicotine are more likely to become heavy smokers themselves, according to new research. The study found that the more time a child is exposed to a parent who is smoking heavily, the more likely he is to take up smoking.

A team of researchers, led by Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center scientists, in Pediatrics, published an online study Monday in the journal Pediatrics that is among the first to offer an intergenerational view into the role a nicotine-addicted parent’s behavior has on the smoking risk for their adolescent offspring.

Authors of the study said in a statement, “Our analysis yielded smoking trajectory classes consistent with previous studies using similar methods, supporting the validity of our findings. An important contribution of our study is the attention to nicotine dependence in identifying adolescent smoking trajectories.”

The study’s findings indicate that parents who stop smoking early on in their child’s life are more likely to prevent the smoking habit in the child.

Darren Mays, PhD, MPH, the study’s lead investigator and an assistant professor of oncology at Georgetown Lombardi, said in a statement, “It is difficult to dissuade children from smoking if one or both parents are heavily dependent on cigarettes.” He continued, “It is also important for parents who smoke to know that their children may model the behavior, particularly if a parent is nicotine dependent.”

According to Mays, nicotine addiction is characterized by a strong urge to smoke and requiring more nicotine in order to feel the same effects, along with suffering from withdrawal symptoms without the drug.