There are over 9 million people in the United States who regularly vape (Drew, 2023). This is equivalent to saying that every single person that lives in New York City vapes regularly. Vaping is an increasingly popular health behavior, particularly among young adolescents (Drew, 2023). In fact, teenagers between the ages of 15-17 have a 1600% higher likelihood of vaping than adults between 25-34 do (Drew, 2023). Within the last month alone, over 2 million high school students reported using a vape (Drew, 2023). This statistic is particularly alarming because the health effects of vaping are significant. Vaping these harmful chemicals can cause lung injury or COPD (Stratton et al., 2018) or brain damage if used early enough during cognitive development (CDC, 2019). For these reasons, public health professionals should aim to protect teens from the addictive nature of e-cigarettes and equip them to resist social norms related to vaping and targeted marketing from tobacco companies.
My multi-level resilience building intervention is called “Don’t get Caught in the Clouds.” The theme of this project is “Empowering teens to overcome the appeal and addiction of e-cigarettes.” This intervention aims to build resilience in teens who face addiction with vaping and to decrease overall rates of vaping in teens aged 13 to 18 through preventative measures. The intervention will provide educational and relational resources to change cultural and social norms around vaping. Posters and a multimedia campaign on the popular social media site - Tik Tok - will be used to effectively reach and relate to the target audience.
The intervention follows the CDC Social Ecological Model. At the Individual level, the objective is to promote increased knowledge about the dangers of vaping and change attitudes towards the behavior. This objective will be achieved through using a series of posters and infographics that increase knowledge about vaping using statistics and evidence based conclusions from studies. A collection of PSA videos will also be posted on social media to provide more information in a space that teens are likely to occupy on a daily basis. The Tik Tok campaign will meet teens where they are and capture their attention in relatable ways by following current trends on the app as well as using testimonials from other teens who utilized the resources provided by the intervention. Further, courses taught by a health educator in the program will be held in a variety of spaces in the community for free to educate on vaping topics such as how to quit, how to talk to family or friends about vaping, and why vaping is harmful.
At the relational level, the objective of the intervention is to promote conversations about the dangers of vaping within social circles. To accomplish this, peer participants will be recruited to be ambassadors for “Don’t get Caught in the Cloud” to represent the intervention in local spaces, especially schools, and to generate attention about the program. Having peers in the program to help recruit and start conversations about vaping is crucial for modeling and for social norms surrounding vaping to change. If students believe that vaping is not as significant to being accepted into social circles, they will likely not start vaping at all. Family members of vaping teens will also be encouraged to attend the program to learn more about vaping and how to be an ally within the community.
At the community level, the intervention has the objective of improving environments that teens occupy. This will be done by working in partnerships with schools and creating no-vape policies. Community courses taught by a health educator will utilize community environments such as libraries, parks, and classrooms as well. By posting information at various establishments in the community, the hope is that vaping will be more limited and less accepted socially.
At the society level, the intervention has the objective to address social and cultural norms surrounding vaping and to advocate for the protection of teens from targeted marketing strategies. We will push for local, state, and national regulation of marketing strategies for tobacco companies and their products. We hope to limit their ability to target teens, specifically with social media ads for e-cigarette use and the glamorization of this behavior. The intervention will also advocate for the limitation of access teens have to vape products by raising the age to buy these products, limiting places where vaping is allowed, and raising the price of e-cigarette products. With these policies in place, we believe that cultural and social norms surrounding vaping will shift and teens will be less inclined to participate in this harmful health behavior.
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