New publication on vaping norms and misperceptions

TMI Founding Director Dr. Jeff Linkenbach was lead author on an article published in Substance Use & Misuse on vaping norms and perceptions. The article used data from TMI’s longstanding Positive Community Norms project run in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Human Services. Key findings include:

"The more frequently high school students believed most students in their school used e-cigarettes, the more likely they were to report past 30-day e-cigarette use. Further, the more they perceived that their peers approved of (or did not disapprove of) e-cigarette use, the more likely they were to report past 30-day use as well."

"Although most (57.8%) had never vaped or used e-cigarettes, only 8.1% of participants correctly estimated that most students do not engage in this use. In fact, the misperceptions were pronounced; 57.2% perceived that most students use daily. Students who thought most of their peers were vaping “daily” or “once a week” were 5.99 and 2.99 times more likely to have used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days respectively, compared to those who thought their peers were “Never” vaping or using e-cigarettes."

You can read the abstract and learn more here.