A first-of-its-kind UK study reveals that while teachers feel more confident tackling vaping in the classroom, widespread confusion about how harmful vaping really is shows schools still need clearer, evidence-based messages for students.
Study: Teachers’ experiences of delivering youth vaping prevention materials in schools in England and Scotland: A cross-sectional online survey. Image credit: Gera Photo/Shutterstock.com
Researchers at King’s College London and their collaborators have recently explored the experiences of teachers who deliver smoking and vaping prevention materials to secondary school students in Great Britain (GB).
The study, which is published in PLOS ONE, suggests the potential effectiveness of smoking prevention programs in improving teachers’ knowledge about vaping and smoking and changing vaping harm perceptions among students.
Rising concerns about youth vaping
The usage of electronic cigarettes, commonly known as vaping, has increased among adolescents and young adults in GB over the past decade. Although vaping is commonly perceived as less harmful than smoking, biomarker and observational studies indicate that vaping exposes young people to nicotine and other potentially harmful toxicants, and long-term vaping may have adverse health outcomes. Regular exposure to nicotine through vaping can also induce addictive behaviors among young people.
In GB, several youth vaping prevention campaigns have been initiated to increase awareness about potential health adversities and restrain youth from using electronic-cigarettes (e-cigarettes).
The majority of these campaigns focus on potential health risks of vaping, which may help reduce vaping in youth, but at the same time may increase misperceptions that vaping is equally or more harmful than smoking. Such misperceptions may, in turn, increase the likelihood of smoking, which is a more harmful behavior. Vaping prevention campaigns should therefore be designed carefully to prevent the spread of misperceptions.
INTENT is an evidence-based smoking prevention program in GB that targets secondary school students. The program is based on implementation intentions, which are “if-then” plans that specify how, where, and when to perform a behavior. This type of plan serves as a self-regulatory approach to increase the likelihood of achieving goal-directed behaviors. Existing evidence suggests that INTENT was previously found to weaken the association between vaping and subsequent smoking among school students.
Given concerns about youth vaping among local authorities and teachers, as well as the lack of evidence-based educational materials on vaping in GB, INTENT was expanded in 2022 to include information on vaping-related health risks (INTENT youth vaping prevention materials).
The current survey, led by researchers from King’s College London, aimed to explore the experiences of teachers who deliver the INTENT youth vaping prevention materials to school students in England and Scotland.
The INTENT program
The INTENT vaping prevention materials comprised four session plans, covering the health impact of vaping and smoking, social influences on vaping, environmental implications of vaping, and addiction.
A total of 45 teachers were surveyed online in 2024. They were recruited from 10 schools across four regions of England and Scotland, so the sample was not nationally representative. The primary objective of the survey was to collect self-reported information about teachers’ experiences of delivering INTENT materials in schools, their perceptions about the impact of INTENT on students, and their perceptions about levels of vaping and smoking in schools.
The impact of INTENT lessons
More than 50% of teachers who participated in the survey reported that their students possess or use e-cigarettes at least once a week. About 96% of teachers perceived vaping as a problem in their schools.
About 96% of teachers reported very or somewhat positive experiences about delivering INTENT materials. Regarding reasons for delivery, approximately 89% of respondents reported that these materials are important for teaching students about vaping, 58% expressed concerns about vaping in schools, and 53% specified the requirement to teach about vaping as part of school policy.
Regarding the effectiveness of INTENT materials, the majority of teachers reported a change in their perception about vaping harm, although misperceptions that vaping is equally or more harmful than smoking remained high among them.
Regarding the impact of INTENT materials on students, most teachers reported that their students are engaged with the materials and that the materials encourage students to make informed choices about vaping. However, about 36% of teachers perceived that these materials had no effect on their students’ vaping habits, and 31% reported that they did not know whether there was any change.
Implications for UK schools
This survey is the first of its kind to assess teachers’ experiences with vaping and the delivery of vaping prevention materials to school students in GB. Most of the studies in this topic have been conducted in the U.S. and Canada.
The survey findings reveal that the INTENT youth vaping prevention materials have the potential to change perceptions of teachers about vaping harm and encourage students to make informed choices about vaping. These findings highlight the feasibility of implementing INTENT or similar programs in schools to improve youth health.
Notably, the survey finds that misperceptions about vaping being equally or more harmful than smoking persist among a group of teachers even after going through the INTENT materials. In this context, researchers noted that since they were unable to collect data before delivering the materials, pre- and post-intervention analyses could not be conducted. There remains a possibility that harm perceptions were already higher before the delivery of INTENT, particularly since vaping misperceptions are pervasive among teachers and in the general population.
Pre- and post-intervention studies are therefore required to evaluate the effectiveness of INTENT materials in improving teachers’ and students’ knowledge about vaping harm and changing students’ vaping behaviors.
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