Associations Between Peer Use, Costs and Benefits, Self-Efficacy, and Adolescent E-cigarette Use

Prior research identified peer use as a salient risk factor of adolescent electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use, but has not expanded on the mechanisms of this association.

Participants were 562 adolescents recruited from rural and suburban public high schools and an adolescent medicine clinic in the mid-Atlantic United States. Participants completed a packet of questionnaires that assessed demographics, substance use, expectations about the consequences of e-cigarette use, and perceptions of their own self-efficacy to resist using e-cigarettes. We estimated a series of mediation models using the MODEL INDIRECT command in MPLUS statistical software. In all models, significance of indirect effects from peer e-cigarette use to self-reported e-cigarette use were tested via two variables: (a) expected costs, (b) benefits of e-cigarette use, and (c) the perceived self-efficacy of the individual to refrain from e-cigarette use.

Adolescents with more peers using e-cigarettes were more likely to have ever used an e-cigarette and perceived greater benefits and fewer costs, which was associated with a reduced self-efficacy to refrain from e-cigarette smoking (Model 1). Those with more peers using e-cigarettes were more likely to be currently using e-cigarettes themselves because they perceived greater benefits and fewer costs, which was associated with a reduced self-efficacy to refrain from e-cigarette smoking (Model 2).

Peer use, self-efficacy to resist use, and expectations of cost and benefits of e-cigarette use should be considered as possible targets when devising tailored interventions and policies to prevent or reduce negative health consequences of long-term e-cigarette use.