Sensation seeking and e-cigarette use in Texas adolescents and young adults
Abstract
The purpose of the dissertation was to examine the association between sensation seeking tendencies and e-cigarette use behaviors in Texas youth and young adults. As such, the dissertation addressed two of the FDA Center for Tobacco Products research priorities. Specifically, it examined factors contributing to e-cigarette initiation (priority #4) with the goal of informing the development of future health communication campaigns (priority #10). The first paper consisted of a cross-sectional analyses of Wave 1 data from the Texas Adolescent Tobacco and Marketing Surveillance System (TATAMS) (n=3,769/N=441,102). Weighted multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the association between sensation seeking and susceptibility to e-cigarette use, ever, and current e-cigarette use in Texas 6th, 8th and, 10th graders. Gender and school grade level were explored as potential effect modifiers of the associations. Higher sensation seeking was associated with increased susceptibility to e-cigarette use, and ever e-cigarette use for male and female adolescents; the association between sensation seeking and ever e-cigarette use was significant for females only. The association between sensation seeking and current e-cigarette use was not significant. No effect modification was found for school grade level for any of the associations examined. The second paper examined the association between sensation seeking category and e-cigarette use behaviors among Texas college students (n=5,418) using data from Wave 1 of the Marketing and Promotions Across Texas Project (Project M-PACT). Results from the multivariable logistic regression analyses indicated that high sensation seeking was significantly and positively associated with ever and current e-cigarette use. In addition, gender did not significantly modify any of the associations. Finally, the third paper examined the longitudinal association between sensation seeking and change in susceptibility to e-cigarette use and change in ever e-cigarette use across time using Wave 1 and Wave 2 TATAMS data (n=2, 418/N=270,901). The results for the multivariable logistic regression analyses examining the association between sensation seeking at Wave 1 and change in susceptibility to e-cigarette use were not significant. With respect to change in ever e-cigarette use, results indicated that high sensation seeking at Wave 1 was associated with becoming an ever user at Wave 2. Gender did not significantly modify either association. Findings from across these three studies indicate that sensation seeking may be an important risk factor for e-cigarette use behaviors in youth and young adults. Such findings lend support to the use of sensation seeking targeting strategies to prevent or reduce e-cigarette use among youth and young adults. While such strategies have been used to communicate the harms of conventional cigarette use, to date, they have not been applied to e-cigarette use. Results from the dissertation suggest that as sensation seeking is associated with e-cigarette use behaviors in youth and college students, thus, in order to prevent and reduce e-cigarette use among youth and young adults, health communication campaigns should use sensation seeking tailored messages, and interventions should be designed to target high sensation seekers who may be most at-risk of future e-cigarette use.
Subject Area
Behavioral Sciences|Epidemiology
Recommended Citation
Case, Kathleen, "Sensation seeking and e-cigarette use in Texas adolescents and young adults" (2016). Texas Medical Center Dissertations (via ProQuest). AAI10126230.
https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/dissertations/AAI10126230