Date of Conferral

2021

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Public Health

Advisor

Tolulope F. Osoba

Abstract

The use of electronic cigarettes among adolescents has remained a major public health concern. Reports have shown that the adolescent brain is still growing and can be affected by nicotine and cancer-causing chemicals contained in e-cigarettes. The rising trend of e-cigarette use by adolescents has reportedly reached an epidemic, and there is a knowledge gap in the factors associated with this behavior and the provision of appropriate interventions for the at-risk population. The purpose of this quantitative, cross-sectional study was to investigate the association between sociodemographic factors and the tendency of Texas adolescents to use e-cigarettes. This study was a secondary data analysis of the Texas Youth Tobacco Survey, involving Texas public school adolescents in grades 6-12. The sociodemographic risk factors used to investigate factors associated with e-cigarettes use (ECU) among Texas adolescents included age, gender, grade level, ethnicity, and race. The theory of planned behavior guided this study, and it posits that intentions are indications of how willing people are to perform certain behaviors. Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 25 was used to perform inferential statistics. Pearson’s Chi-Square and Logistic Regression analyses were conducted to answer the research questions. The results showed that age (p < .001) and grade level (p < .01) were the most significant predictors of adolescent ECU. The findings from this study may have positive social change impact by providing better understanding of factors associated with adolescent ECU to help guide public health practitioners in developing audience-targeted health promotion programs for mitigating adolescent ECU.

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