Identifying and Addressing the Impact of Parental Vaping-Related Knowledge and Parenting Behaviors on Adolescents' Nicotine and Cannabis Vaping: A Longitudinal Observational and Experimental Approach

About This Grant

SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Adolescent nicotine vaping remains prevalent alongside increases in cannabis vaping, nicotine-cannabis co-vaping, and daily/near-daily nicotine and cannabis vaping rates since 2019. Nicotine and cannabis vaping are associated with nicotine and cannabis dependence, carcinogen exposure, and pulmonary, cognitive, and mental health symptoms, with co-vaping posing additive health risk. Despite the critical role of parents in preventing adolescents’ tobacco and cannabis smoking, adolescents’ vaping poses difficulties for parents in their ability to engage in vaping prevention parenting behaviors (VPPBs), as vape devices may be disguised as other products and modified to vape cannabis and higher levels of nicotine. Less than half of parents report knowledge of vape device characteristics, vaping health consequences, adolescent vaping norms, and youth-targeted vaping marketing. Social media messages about vaping and VPPBs are ideal prevention tools, as 90% of US parents use social media regularly including for health information and parenting advice. This proposal is informed by social cognitive theory and the health belief model and builds on our team’s expertise in longitudinal studies of parenting and adolescent substance use and experimental studies testing youth vaping messaging. The overall goal of this work is to understand how to empower parents to prevent adolescent nicotine and cannabis vaping. We will conduct a 6-wave longitudinal survey study among 1,000 US parent-adolescent (ages 12-17) dyads recruited via social media and a 5-week online experimental study among a subset of 300 parents with low parent vaping knowledge (PVK) to test messages designed to improve PVK and VPPBs. Parents will be randomly assigned to view Facebook posts in a 4 (within-persons) X 3 (between-persons) mixed design. Each parent will view: 1) 4 sets of messages aimed at promoting PVK (device characteristics, harms, norms, youth-targeted marketing) in a randomized order; and 2) one of 3 sets of messages aimed at promoting VPPBs (rules, monitoring, communication). Experimental outcomes include PVK (i.e., device characteristics, health consequences, vaping norms, youth-targeted marketing), use of VPPBs (i.e., rules, monitoring, communication), and adolescents’ vaping outcomes (i.e., any current nicotine/cannabis vaping, frequency of nicotine/cannabis vaping, co-vaping vs. nicotine-/cannabis-only vaping, susceptibility to future nicotine/cannabis vaping). We will address 2 specific aims: Aim 1 (longitudinal surveys) - Examine 1a) direct associations of PVK and VPPBs with adolescents’ nicotine and cannabis vaping trajectories; and 1b) indirect associations of PVK with adolescents’ nicotine and cannabis vaping trajectories via VPPBs as mediators; and Aim 2 (experimental study) - Examine: 2a) within-persons effects of PVK messaging themes on PVK outcomes and between-persons effects of VPPB messaging themes on VPPB outcomes; and 2b) within-persons effects of PVK messaging themes on adolescents’ vaping outcomes via increases in PVK and between-persons effects of VPPB messaging themes on adolescents’ vaping outcomes via increases in VPPB use. This proposal is responsive to NIDA’s NOT-DA-22-004: Epidemiology of Drug Abuse and will inform large-scale social media messaging campaigns empowering parents to prevent adolescent nicotine and cannabis vaping initiation and progression.