Descriptive and Injunctive Norms Related to E-Cigarettes

Introduction E-cigarette use has rapidly increased in prevalence in the United States, and rates of use are even higher among military personnel compared to the general population. Descriptive and injunctive norms have previously been shown to impact tobacco use. However, little research has been conducted related to e-cigarette descriptive and injunctive norms, and no research has addressed e-cigarette norms among a military population. Materials and Methods From July, 2018 to February, 2019, 22 focus groups (N = 164) were conducted among airmen, military training leaders, and technical training instructors. The focus groups aimed to gain insight into facilitators and barriers to tobacco use during technical training, where airmen receive training for their specific jobs. Study procedures were approved by the institutional review board of the 59th Medical Wing in San Antonio. Focus group recordings were transcribed, and transcripts coded. Themes related to descriptive and injunctive norms were examined for the current study. Results Many interviewees mentioned the prevalence of e-cigarette use, either generally (". . . a lot of people vape but that's kind of the thing nowadays") or with specific estimates of how many airmen use ("vaping, probably at least 60-70%"). However, injunctive norms were not commonly discussed, with only a couple of interviewees mentioning that e-cigarette use is the "cool" trend or they feel peer pressure. Conclusions Descriptive norms were more commonly mentioned than injunctive norms, which may indicate that injunctive norms are not as influential for e-cigarette use. Additionally, all estimates related to e-cigarette prevalence were higher than actual rates of use, showing an overestimation of use, which previous literature has shown increases likelihood of e-cigarette use. Future research should specifically ask about injunctive norms as well as determine if descriptive and injunctive norms influence actual e-cigarette use behaviors among military personnel.