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Background and aimsThe vaping rate among US teenagers has doubled in the last 2 years, which may be explained in part by teenagers' optimism that they would have relatively little trouble in quitting. The aim of this study was to estimate the extent to which teenagers exhibited optimism bias, what characteristics are associated with optimism bias and which factors are related to respondents' perceptions of how hard it would be for them to quit.DesignA national, on-line, cross-sectional survey in 2018 using quota sampling.SettingUnited States.ParticipantsRespondents were 1610 teenagers aged 14-18 years who had ever tried or heard of JUULs or e-cigarettes generally.MeasurementsOptimism bias was defined as respondents' perceptions of their own difficulty quitting vaping compared with that of an average US person of their own age. Linear regression was used to examine associations between respondents' characteristics with both optimism bias and their own perceived difficulty quitting vaping.FindingsMore than 60% of teenagers were optimistically biased about their ability to quit vaping. Smoking (b = -0.69, P ConclusionsOn average, US teenagers appear to show optimism bias about their ability to quit vaping, which decreases with smoking and vaping and increases with eligibility for reduced-price school lunches.

Original publication

DOI

10.1111/add.15525

Type

Journal

Addiction (Abingdon, England)

Publication Date

23/04/2021

Addresses

Department of Health Law, Policy and Management, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.