The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if a brief digital intervention can reduce e-cigarette use and prevent cigarette smoking initiation in teenagers ages 12-17. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Compared to the control condition, does the intervention reduce e-cigarette use frequency in teenagers? * Compared to the control condition, does the intervention reduce risk to start smoking cigarettes in teenagers? Researchers will compare the digital intervention to see if it leads to greater reductions in e-cigarette use and smoking risk than a waitlist control condition. Participants will complete 5 brief online surveys across 12 weeks, and some will be selected to do a post-intervention virtual interview. In this interview, participants will be asked to share their opinions about the intervention and identify areas that need refinement.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
150
The intervention contains Personalized Normative Feedback (PNF), motivational interviewing (MI), and education about vaping and smoking harms. The program begins with the MI-based portion, which includes exploration of their experienced health and personal consequences of vaping and potential reasons for and motivation for shifting vaping behaviors (e.g., to save money, to be free from addiction). Second, the education portion involves presentation of the actual harms posed by e-cigarettes to clarify any misperceptions of the negative effects of vaping and nicotine exposure in teens. Next, users are presented with the PNF portion. In the PNF portion, participants receive feedback about their perceptions of peer vaping by presenting their typical behavior/attitude alongside their perceptions of others' behavior/attitude alongside the actual norm of the behavior/attitude. Lastly, strategies recommended for nicotine cessation are presented.
Days vaped in the past 7 days
Participants will report the number of days they vaped in the past 7 days.
Time frame: Past 7 day vaping measured at baseline, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks post-randomization.
Times vape is picked up per day
Participants will report the number of times they picked up their device to vape per day in the past 7 days.
Time frame: Past 7 day vaping measured at baseline, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks post-randomization.
Smoking Susceptibility
Smoking susceptibility will be assessed with the 4-item Expanded Susceptibility to Smoking Index, with the following responses: Definitely not, Probably not, Probably yes, and Definitely yes. This is a binary outcome. If a respondent answers "definitely not" to all four questions, they are categorized as not susceptible. Any other response on any item flags the respondent as susceptible.
Time frame: Past 7 day smoking susceptibility measured at baseline, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks post-randomization.
Vaping Quit Attempts
Quit attempts will be measured with questions asking for the number of quit attempts lasting at least 1 day since the last assessment.
Time frame: Vaping quit attempts in the past 7 days assessed at baseline, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks.
Vaping Descriptive Normative Perceptions
Participants will report their beliefs regarding the percentage of teens who vaped, number of days individuals their age vaped, the number of times others their age picked up their vaping device per day in the past 30 days,
Time frame: Vaping normative perceptions assessed at baseline, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks.
Vaping Injunctive Normative Perceptions
Participants will report how much they believe others their age approve (or disapprove) of vaping using a 5-point Likert scale (responses options: Strongly disapprove to Strongly approve).
Time frame: Vaping normative perceptions assessed at baseline, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks.
Smoking Descriptive Normative Perceptions
Participants will report their beliefs about the percentage of teens who have smoked, the number of days others their age smoked in the past 30 days, and the quantity of cigarettes others their age smoked per day in the past 30 days.
Time frame: Smoking normative perceptions assessed at baseline, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks.
Smoking Injunctive Normative Perceptions
Participants will report how much they believe others their age approve (or disapprove) of cigarette smoking using a 5-point Likert scale (responses options: Strongly disapprove to Strongly approve).
Time frame: Smoking normative perceptions assessed at baseline, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks.
Quitting vaping self-efficacy
Self-efficacy will be assessed by 2 adapted items that originally assessed self-efficacy to quit smoking. Participants rate their confidence about quitting vaping "someday" and "in the next 6 months."
Time frame: Self-efficacy in the past 7 days assessed at baseline, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks.
Motivation to Quit Vaping
Motivation will be assessed by asking participants whether they were seriously thinking about quitting vaping with responses ranging from 1 = No, I am not thinking about quitting to 5 = Yes, I want to quit during the next 30 days.
Time frame: Motivation to quit in the past 7 days assessed at baseline, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks.
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