A Longitudinal Study of Predictors for Adolescent Electronic Cigarette Experimentation and Comparison with Conventional Smoking

Jaana M. Kinnunen, Hanna Ollila, Jaana Minkkinen, Pirjo L. Lindfors and Arja H. Rimpelä
Additional contact information
Jaana M. Kinnunen: Faculty of Social Sciences, Health Sciences, University of Tampere, 33014 Tampere, Finland
Hanna Ollila: Alcohol, Drugs and Addictions Unit, Department of Public Health Solutions, National Institute for Health and Welfare, 00271 Helsinki, Finland
Jaana Minkkinen: Faculty of Social Sciences, Health Sciences, University of Tampere, 33014 Tampere, Finland
Pirjo L. Lindfors: Faculty of Social Sciences, Health Sciences, University of Tampere, 33014 Tampere, Finland
Arja H. Rimpelä: Faculty of Social Sciences, Health Sciences, University of Tampere, 33014 Tampere, Finland

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 2, 1-17

Abstract: Little is known of the predictors of electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use among adolescents, even though the use is increasing. We studied here the predictors for e-cigarette experimentation (tried and tried more than twice) and compared them with predictors for conventional smoking. A baseline school survey was conducted in the Helsinki metropolitan area, Finland, in 2011 for seventh graders (12 to 13-year-olds). Response rate was 73%. The same students were followed up in 2014 (9th grade, 15 to 16-year-olds), N = 5742. Generalized linear mixed models controlling for school clustering were used. In the follow-up, 43.3% of boys and 25.6% of girls had tried e-cigarettes and 21.9% and 8.1% correspondingly more than twice. The strongest predictors for both genders were conventional smoking, drunkenness and energy drink use. Furthermore, poor academic achievement predicted e-cigarette experimentation for both genders, and for boys, participation in team sports was a predictor. The predictors for experimenting and for experimenting more than twice were very similar, except for boys’ participation in team sports. They were also similar compared to the predictors of conventional smoking but the associations were weaker. To conclude, smoking and other addictive behaviors predict adolescents’ experimentation with e-cigarettes. Family’s socioeconomic background had little significance.

Keywords: electronic cigarette; adolescents; smoking; predictors; school survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/2/305/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/2/305/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:2:p:305-:d:131178

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().