Date of Award

Fall 12-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology

Committee Director

James M. Henson

Committee Member

Kristin E. Heron

Committee Member

Mary L. Still

Abstract

Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use has increased among the U.S. population in recent years with estimates showing that nearly 15% of American adults have tried an e-cigarette (Villarroel et al., 2020). Problem Behavior Theory (PBT) has successfully outlined a variety of factors that affect an individual’s engagement in an identified problem behavior. In an attempt to better understand e-cigarette use among an emerging adult population (i.e., college student population), the purpose of the current study was to explore how a large subset of PBT factors may differentiate between e-cigarette user categories (nonuser, non-daily user, daily user). A sample of 487 college students over the age of 18 were collected from a Mid-Atlantic university. Positive-negative functions discrepancy (i.e., the difference between the endorsed reasons for using e-cigarettes and the endorsed reasons for not using e-cigarettes), sexual identity, other substance use (i.e., marijuana and alcohol), and control from parents and friends were identified as high-ranking splitting factors across user categories. Policy makers and prevention and intervention methods should tailor their approaches to target these factors. Such changes may result in the reduction of e-cigarette use among college students.

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In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/2vg3-sn61

ISBN

9798371978677

ORCID

0000-0002-8216-5719

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