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. 2016 Aug 1:165:275-8.
doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.05.017. Epub 2016 Jun 3.

Self-reported reasons for vaping among 8th, 10th, and 12th graders in the US: Nationally-representative results

Megan E Patrick  1 , Richard A Miech  2 , Carola Carlier  2 , Patrick M O'Malley  2 , Lloyd D Johnston  2 , John E Schulenberg  3
Affiliations

Self-reported reasons for vaping among 8th, 10th, and 12th graders in the US: Nationally-representative results

Megan E Patrick et al. Drug Alcohol Depend. .

Abstract

Objective: The study describes the most common reasons for using vaporizers (such as e-cigarettes) among US adolescents and investigates how reasons for use differ by grade, lifetime cigarette use, frequency of vaporizer use, gender, race/ethnicity, and parent education.

Method: Data were collected from 4066 students in the 8th, 10th, and 12th grades in 2015 as part of the Monitoring the Future study, a cross-sectional and nationally representative US survey.

Results: Common reasons for vaporizer use reported by respondents who had ever used a vaporizer were experimentation (53.0%), taste (37.2%), boredom (23.5%), having a good time (22.4%), and relaxation (21.6%). Reasons differed little across grades or parent education; reasons differed by lifetime use of regular cigarettes, frequency of vaping, gender, and race/ethnicity.

Conclusions: Overall, results suggest that decisions to vape are based on curiosity, taste, and pleasure, rather than for reasons such as quitting regular cigarettes or substituting for regular cigarette smoking.

Keywords: Adolescents; Electronic cigarettes; Reasons; Vaporizers; e-Cigarettes.

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