ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Smoking research demonstrates that parents can influence their adolescent's tobacco smoking perceptions and behaviors, but little is known about the protective effects of different parenting practices on adolescent vaping. In this study we investigate how adolescent perceptions of parents' knowledge of their activities and parental media mediation are associated with adolescents' perceptions of vaping and adolescent vaping behaviors. METHOD: Six hundred thirty-nine youth (65.7% female, average age: 14.71 years old) recruited through 4-H clubs in nine states participated in a study evaluating a substance use intervention program. Because the evaluation design could influence participants, we used only baseline data. An online self-reported survey was administrated. Most youth self-identified as White (87.3%) and only handful youth indicated Asian (3.4%), African American (3.4%), American Indian (1.1%), and other or unreported (4.8%). Approximately 60% of youth lived in small town or rural areas in US. RESULTS: Analyses revealed that parental knowledge was positively related with adolescent perceived harm of vaping and perceived prevalence of vaping, but was negatively related with perceived acceptability of vaping and social expectancy of vaping. In addition, youth who reported greater parental media mediation were more likely to perceive the harm of vaping and less likely to vape compared with youth with lower parental media mediation. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that parental education about vaping, including those promoting conversations regarding vaping and vaping ads, may be important to the prevention of adolescent vaping.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Synthetic cannabinoids (SCs) are a large, heterogeneous group of chemicals that are structurally similar to δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol. Many SCs are high-efficacy full agonists of the CB1 and/or CB2 cannabinoid receptors, resulting in a potent group of chemicals with a variety of negative health effects, including death. SCs are available to adolescents at convenience stores and smoke shops and on the Internet. However, little is known about the risk factors that contribute to eventual use of SCs in adolescents, and no research has examined the psychiatric, personality, and substance-use risk factors that prospectively predict SC use. On the basis of extant cross-sectional research, we hypothesized that anxiety, depression, impulsivity, and marijuana use would prospectively predict eventual SC use. METHODS: Data were collected across 2 time points 12 months apart on adolescents attending multiple public high schools in southeast Texas (n = 964). RESULTS: Path analysis indicated that depressive symptoms, marijuana use, alcohol use, and SC use at baseline were predictive of SC use at 1-year follow-up, whereas anxiety symptoms and impulsivity were not. In addition, SC use at baseline was not predictive of marijuana use at the 1-year follow-up. Females and African Americans were less likely to use SCs than males or those of other ethnicities. CONCLUSIONS: SC-use prevention programming should consider depressive symptoms, marijuana use, and alcohol use as risk factors for SC use. Of particular significance, traditional marijuana use was predictive of subsequent SC use, but SC use was not predictive of later marijuana use.
