ORCID
0000-0001-6588-7878 (Harrell), 0000-0002-1313-6076 (England), 0009-0006-5805-9277 (Paulson)
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-2025
DOI
10.1177/1179173X241266563
Publication Title
Tobacco Use Insights
Volume
17
Pages
1-10
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Electronic nicotine delivery systems (“e-cigarettes”) are the nicotine product most commonly used by adolescents. Research, treatment, and policy could benefit from measures of adolescent e-cigarette beliefs about outcomes of use (ie, expectancies). In the current study, we developed and tested an adolescent electronic nicotine vaping expectancy measure.
METHODS: A focus group with adolescents evaluated potential e-cigarette expectancy items. A panel of national experts assisted in revision of these items. Finally, items were administered to a sample of adolescents 14-17 years old (N = 267, Mean age 15.6, SD = 1.1, 50.9% Female, 50.2% Non-Hispanic White, 22.5% Non-Hispanic Black, 14.2% Hispanic) in a large Southeastern metropolitan area in the United States.
RESULTS: Exploratory Factor Analysis revealed a four factor solution: Negative Consequences (Cronbach’s α = .92); Positive Reinforcement (α = .83); Negative Affect Reduction (α = .95); and Weight Control (α = .89). Subscales were significantly correlated with vaping susceptibility and lifetime vaping. Subscales successfully differentiated susceptible adolescents from confirmed non-susceptible adolescents, with susceptible adolescents reporting more positive expectancies, eg, Positive Reinforcement, M = 5.0, SD = 2.0 vs M = 3.0, SD = 2.1, P < .001, η2 = 0.19, and less negative expectancies, M = 5.5, SD = 2.3 vs M = 6.5, SD = 2.6, P = .001, η2 = 0.04. Similar results were found comparing adolescents who have never vaped nicotine with those who have vaped nicotine. Hierarchical linear regression demonstrated subscales were significant predictors of lifetime vaping after controlling for demographics, vaping ad exposure, and peer/family vaping.
CONCLUSIONS: A preliminary version of an adolescent expectancy measure appears reliable and valid based on expert input and pilot testing with adolescents. Promising results were found in the domains of concurrent validity, discriminant validity, and incremental validity. Future research and evaluation efforts will be able to use this tool to further prevention and treatment goals.
Rights
Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Original Publication Citation
Harrell, P. T., England, K. J., Barnett, T. E., Simmons, V. N., Handel, R. W., & Paulson, A. C. (2024). Adolescent e-Cigarette expectancies: Measure development and preliminary validity of the Electronic Nicotine Vaping Outcomes Measure for Youth. Tobacco Use Insights, 17, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1177/1179173X241266563.
Repository Citation
Harrell, P. T., England, K. J., Barnett, T. E., Simmons, V. N., Handel, R. W., & Paulson, A. C. (2024). Adolescent e-Cigarette expectancies: Measure development and preliminary validity of the Electronic Nicotine Vaping Outcomes Measure for Youth. Tobacco Use Insights, 17, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1177/1179173X241266563.