Influencing Gen Vape report reveals seven types of vaping behaviours in Australian teenagers

A new Australian survey has identified seven types of vaping behaviours in teenagers giving medical professionals and parents tailored advice for each group for the first time.

The Influencing Gen Vape report — released on Wednesday — from The Behaviour Change Collaborative and Victoria Health surveyed more than 3500 teenagers between Year 7 and Year 12, with one in five admitting they have tried vaping.

One-quarter of those teenagers that do not currently vape are also susceptible to trying it in the future.

The seven behaviours identified through the survey included rejectors, uninterested, susceptible, triallists, experimenters, attached, and addicted.

Lead researcher Donna van Bueren said the teenagers who were experimenters were the most concerning as that behaviour can quickly lead to an addiction to vaping.

“Many teenagers who are experimenting with vaping think that their likelihood of becoming addicted is really low but we have learned that owning your own vape is a really critical moment in time that starts what becomes a slippery slope towards increased use and ultimately addiction for many teenagers,” she said.

“Addicted teenagers have told us they were also once experimenters and now they’ve landed themselves in the addicted group so we know the high addictiveness of vapes containing nicotine.

“Teenagers are now faced with this new kind of nicotine-filled landscape where it is easy to get and we really need to be able to get the right messaging and right support to each of these segments of teenagers.”

The report provides tailored advice that parents and medical professionals can give to teenagers depending on what vaping behaviour they fall into.

For teenagers who are addicted, many of them began vaping daily to reduce stress and believe vaping is a safer option than other coping mechanisms. They also often lack the confidence in their ability to quit.

Parents and medical professionals are advised to show addicted teenagers what they gain from stopping, teaching them other ways to cope with stress from school and life, and to prompt self-reflection of short-term harms they may already be experiencing.

Professor van Bueren said the survey found parents could be highly influential in getting their teenagers to make the right decisions around vaping.

“When we asked teenagers whose opinion mattered to them the most when it came to vaping, the overwhelming majority put parents at the top of that list,” she said.

“Parents can be highly influential when it comes to vaping and it’s really helpful if parents can have these research findings at their fingertips so they can work out what kind of teenager do they have.”

The new report comes just days after all vaping products including liquids with or without nicotine, and hardware were banned from importation.

This leaves vapers who want to use their devices with nicotine the option of obtaining a prescription from their GP, and then buying nicotine vaping liquids from a pharmacy.