Youth and Vaping: How Can Parents and Caregivers Encourage Reduction in Use?

Vaping (also referred to as e-cigarette usage) by youth is a serious concern, with a peak occurring in 2019, when 27.5 percent of high school students reported current use. According to the 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey, the number of students who reported current e-cigarette use dropped from 2.13 million youth (7.7 percent) in 2023 to 1.63 million youth (5.9 percent) in 2024.   

While these numbers are encouraging and heading in the right direction, there is room for continued improvement. How do we continue this downward trend?  

Here are a few ideas for parents and caregivers: 

1. Continue to educate yourself about e-cigarettes and vaping. When explaining to youth why vaping is not acceptable, being armed with information curtails the “because I said so” message that youth may want to defy. Tweens and teens are defining who they are at this life stage, which makes some defiance and testing developmentally appropriate. The more adults can provide fact-based and logical reasons why not to do something, the less likely youth will become defensive and act out of defiance.
      
2. Keep talking to your children about e-cigarettes. Continuing this conversation and why it is unsafe, unhealthy, and undesirable is important. Studies have demonstrated the importance of repetition in learning. For a child to learn something, it needs to be repeated approximately eight times.
    
3. Talk with them when you have their attention. These conversations may occur in the car on the way to practice, at the dinner table, or while saying good night. Using natural lead-ins to the conversation is also helpful to start this discussion. An opportune time to bring up e-cigarette use may be when you notice someone vaping while driving, you drive past a vape shop, or you see a billboard with an anti-tobacco message.
    
4. Rather than lecturing for a length of time, have brief discussions. A study by the University of California found that teenagers have an average attention span of 12 minutes. Keeping conversations brief is the best way to ensure the message is being heard.
     
5. Tap into their communication preference. Most youth have phones and communicate via texts more than verbal conversations. Text information to your youth when you come across an article or facts about e-cigarettes. A study conducted by the University of North Carolina found that information about the harm associated with e-cigarettes was most impactful according to teens. 

View Article: Tips on Talking to Your Kids

Youth First is hosting a virtual “Catch My Breath” Parent Workshop on Wednesday, February 26 from 6:00 – 7:30PM CT for parents and caregivers of middle schoolers. If you are interested in participating, please email Heather Miller, Youth First Clinical Supervisor, at hmiller@youthfirstinc.org to register. This workshop discusses the youth vaping epidemic, strategies to support healthy decisions, identifying signs of vaping, and talking with children about vaping. Additional virtual parent workshops will be held for parents and caregivers of high schoolers as well as elementary students in the near future as well.