Patterns of Reasons for Vaping in a National Sample of Adolescent Vapers

Introduction. Vaping is growing in popularity among US adolescents. Understanding reasons for use is critical to better understand this growing phenomenon. There is a growing body of research showing that adolescents use for multiple reasons, but research to date has not addressed this complexity in reasons for vaping. This study sought to identify subgroups of 12^th grade adolescents based on their self-reported reasons for vaping.

Method. Data from the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study were used. MTF is an ongoing annual survey of 8^th, 10^th, and 12^th graders in the US. This study focused on 12^th graders from years 2015-16 who reported a lifetime history of vaping (N=2664, 55% male). Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to identify profiles of reasons for vaping. Indicators reflected 10 reasons for vaping (e.g., “to experiment—to see what it’s like,” “to relax or relieve tension,” “to help quit regular cigarettes”).

Results. Analyses indicated a well-identified model with 8 classes. The largest class (Experimenters only; 30.9% of the sample) was characterized by only reporting vaping for experimental reasons and very little else. Two other subgroups were also identified by a single reason for vaping: Taste only (14.7%) and To have a good time only (5.8%). Other classes were dominated by a single primary reason but also included moderate levels of using because it tastes good, to experiment, to have a good time, and because of boredom: Bored + (11.7%), Relax + (11.3%), Taste + (9.8%), and Looks cool + (9.8%). A small but unique class was characterized primarily by vaping both to help quit cigarette use and because cigarette use was not permitted in certain locations (Cigarette smokers; 6.5%).

Conclusions. Our findings demonstrate that there is a large degree of heterogeneity in profiles of reasons for vaping among 12^th graders. The two largest subgroups were defined by experimentation and taste, highlighting the importance of these for adolescents. In line with previous literature, only a small subgroup of adolescents endorsed reasons for use related to cigarette use. Discussion will focus on the prevention implications for adolescent vaping.