Abstaining College Students’ Motives to Use E-Cigarettes: A Brief Report

Abstract

Although college students have higher rates of e-cigarette use compared with non-college-attending young adults, e-cigarette-abstaining college students are an understudied population. The present study was designed to create a scale assessing current e-cigarette abstainers' motives to abstain from or initiate e-cigarette use. Participants from two universities who had never used e-cigarettes (n = 281) completed an online survey. Participants indicated their e-cigarette abstention and initiation motives, and their perceived vulnerability to, willingness to use, and intentions to use e-cigarettes. Analyses revealed three factors of abstention motives (avoiding health outcomes, low incentive to initiate, and concerns regarding social approval of use) and three factors of initiation motives (tobacco alternatives, social reasons, and coping with negative emotions). When demographics were controlled for, only coping motives significantly positively related to abstainers' willingness and intentions for future e-cigarette initiation. Furthermore, only the avoiding health outcomes abstention motive was positively related to participants' perceived vulnerability to the negative health effects of e-cigarettes. This study provides initial support for a scale to assess what motives abstainers may have to initiate e-cigarette use. Results indicated that coping motives may be indicators of readiness to initiate e-cigarettes.