Date of Award
8-1-2022
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D. in Psychology
First Advisor
Lee M. Cohen
Second Advisor
Laura J. Dixon
Third Advisor
Nicolaas Prins
School
University of Mississippi
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Abstract
Background: While cigarette smoking has steadily declined, electronic cigarette use (e.g., e-cigarettes, electronic nicotine delivery systems [ENDS]) has led a new generation to become addicted to nicotine (Cummings & Proctor, 2014; USDHHS, 2014). Some individuals believe these products have the potential to provide benefits in helping smokers quit; however, many harmful aspects have been uniquely associated with e-cigarette use (e.g., toxicity, vape-specific injuries, gateway effects, etc.). If e-cigarettes are to be established as useful cessation tools, researchers must better understand e-cigarette use beliefs and associated clinical targets. Purpose: To better inform e-cigarette prevention and intervention, investigators developed profiles of young adults with similar e-cigarette outcome expectancies and used demographic features, transdiagnostic emotional variables (i.e., anhedonia, anxiety sensitivity, and distress tolerance), and smoking status to predict participants’ group membership. Participants and Methods: Five hundred and six young adults (aged 18 to 40) were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk to complete an anonymous survey created in Qualtrics. Nicotine users with varying nicotine use backgrounds were surveyed. The Youth E-Cigarette Outcome Expectancies Measure-Revised Long Version was used to assess participants’ e-cigarette outcome expectancies (Pokhrel et al., 2014, 2018). Based on e-cigarette expectancies, subgroups were derived using latent class analysis in Mplus Version 8.4 (Muthén & Muthén, 1998-2017). After determining latent class profiles, demographic features and transdiagnostic emotional variables, measured using the Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale (Snaith et al., 1995), the Anxiety Sensitivity Inventory (Taylor et al., 2007), and the Distress Tolerance Scale (Simons & Gaher, 2005), were used to predict membership. Results: Analyses revealed three distinct classes of participants with similar e-cigarette use expectancies. Sex, race, education, smoking status, anhedonia, and anxiety sensitivity significantly predicted membership. Heightened anxiety sensitivity was associated with increased odds of “Vape Positive†group membership. Conclusions: Consistent with previous literature, identifying as female and being more educated appears to be connected to decreased positive e-cigarette expectancies. Anxiety sensitivity and anhedonia appear to be malleable clinical targets that predict young adults’ positive beliefs about e-cigarette use. Findings support conclusions that differences exist between e-cigarette use and traditional smoking patterns. Additional research will elucidate understanding of diverse groups’ e-cigarette use patterns.
Recommended Citation
Torres, Victoria Alicia, "Latent Profiles of Young Adults Based on E-Cigarette Outcome Expectancies" (2022). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2408.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/2408
Concentration/Emphasis
Clinical Psychology