E-Cigarette Use Behavior and Expectancies Among Sexual Minority and Heterosexual College Student E-Cigarette Users

College students who identify as a sexual minority (i.e., lesbian, gay, bisexual, or other sexual orientation) are at higher risk for e-cigarette use than their heterosexual or "straight" peers. However, little is known about factors, such as e-cigarette outcome expectancies, that might in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Substance use & misuse Vol. 59; no. 14; pp. 2021 - 2028
Main Authors:	McLeish, Alison C, Smith, Courteney L, Tomlinson, Madeline M, Kerstiens, Savanna, Walker, Kandi L, Hart, Joy L
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	England Taylor & Francis Ltd 2024
Subjects:	Adolescent Adult Bisexuality College students Consequences Electronic cigarettes Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems - statistics & numerical data Female Heterosexuality Heterosexuality - psychology Heterosexuality - statistics & numerical data Humans Lesbianism Male Negative events Positive reinforcement Reinforcement Self report Sexual and Gender Minorities - psychology Sexual and Gender Minorities - statistics & numerical data Sexual orientation Smoking Students - psychology Students - statistics & numerical data Universities Vaping - epidemiology Vaping - psychology Young Adult dependence College students e-cigarettes sexual minority expectancies
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Summary:	College students who identify as a sexual minority (i.e., lesbian, gay, bisexual, or other sexual orientation) are at higher risk for e-cigarette use than their heterosexual or "straight" peers. However, little is known about factors, such as e-cigarette outcome expectancies, that might influence these differences in prevalence rates. Therefore, the current study examined differences between heterosexual and sexual minority college student e-cigarette users in terms of days of past-month e-cigarette use, e-cigarette dependence, and e-cigarette outcome expectancies. A secondary aim of the study was to examine whether outcome expectancies served as an explanatory mechanism in the association between sexual minority status and e-cigarette use frequency and dependence. Participants were heterosexual ( = 90; = 19.65, = 2.70; 76.7% female; 77.8% White) and sexual minority ( = 44; = 20.02, = 2.18; 68.2% female; 90.9% White) college student e-cigarette users who completed self-report measures. Students who identified as a sexual minority reported greater e-cigarette dependence, more frequent past 30-day use, and greater negative consequences and positive reinforcement e-cigarette outcome expectancies. Follow-up mediation analyses indicated a significant indirect effect of sexual minority status on both days of past-month e-cigarette use and e-cigarette dependence through expectancies for negative consequences and positive reinforcement. These findings suggest that positive reinforcement and negative consequences outcome expectancies may be contributing to the disparities in e-cigarette use among college students who identify as a sexual minority and could be useful targets for cessation interventions for this population.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	1082-6084 1532-2491 1532-2491
DOI:	10.1080/10826084.2024.2392532