Journal
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HEALTH BEHAVIOR
Volume 45, Issue 5, Pages 933-946Publisher
PNG PUBLICATIONS
DOI: 10.5993/AJHB.45.5.13
Keywords
electronic cigarettes; adolescents; perceptions
Categories
Funding
- Board of Commissioners of Fulton County Government
- Fulton County Board of Health
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The study found that both youth and parents have positive and negative outcome expectancies regarding e-cigarette use, including benefits such as stress relief and negative impacts such as social consequences and health risks. To reduce youth e-cigarette use, regulations and public communication campaigns can target these outcome expectancies.
Objectives: Outcome expectancies are central to explaining health behavior and have been shown to predict tobacco use. Research on outcome expectancies for e-cigarette use among youth is scarce but increasingly important given the growing rates of use, particularly of high -nicotine pod devices and the recent outbreak of e-cigarette related lung disease. Methods: In 2019, we conducted 3 focus groups with middle school youth (N=25), 5 with high school youth (N=38), and 4 with parents (N=27). Youth and parents were not related and groups included both users and non-users. Participants discussed reasons for e-cigarette use and bad and good things that might happen to a person who vapes. Results: Participants described positive and negative psychoactive/sensory, social, and health-related outcome expectancies. Both youth and parents mentioned stress relief and appearing older as positive outcome expectancies, and e-cigarette flavors, acting rebellious, and structural opportunities as other reasons for initiating e-cigarette use. Social consequences and health outcomes were negative outcome expectancies deterring use. Conclusions: Regulations and public communication campaigns can counteract the positive outcome expectancies (flavor regulation, providing stress reduction tips) and capitalize on negative ones (communicating negative health outcomes) to decrease youth e-cigarette use.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available