Perceptions of E-Cigarettes among Black Youth in California

Catherine A. Hess, Tamar M. J. Antin, Rachelle Annechino and Geoffrey Hunt
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Catherine A. Hess: Prevention Research Institute, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, 180 Grand Avenue., Suite 1200, Oakland, CA 94612, USA
Tamar M. J. Antin: Prevention Research Institute, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, 180 Grand Avenue., Suite 1200, Oakland, CA 94612, USA
Rachelle Annechino: Prevention Research Institute, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, 180 Grand Avenue., Suite 1200, Oakland, CA 94612, USA
Geoffrey Hunt: Institute for Scientific Analysis, 1150 Ballena Blvd., Suite 211, Alameda, CA 94501, USA

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Research suggests that Black youth are less likely to use e-cigarettes than their white counterparts, yet little is known as to why. We examined perceptions of e-cigarettes among Black young adults (ages 18–25) to explore the meanings these youth ascribe to e-cigarettes and the role that identity plays in how these devices are viewed. Analysis of in-depth interviews with 36 Black smokers and non-smokers in the San Francisco Bay Area suggests that Black youth perceive e-cigarettes as serving distinct, yet overlapping roles: a utilitarian function, in that they are recognized as legitimate smoking cessation tools, and a social function, insofar as they serve to mark social identity, specifically a social identity from which our participants disassociated. Participants described e-cigarette users in highly racialized and classed terms and generally expressed disinterest in using e-cigarettes, due in part perhaps to the fact that use of these devices would signal alignment with a middle class, hipster identity. This analysis is discussed within a highly charged political and public health debate about the benefits and harms associated with e-cigarette use.

Keywords: ENDS; Black youth; cultural commodity; identity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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