A comprehensive, Australian-first research project which aims to deeply understand teenagers’ experiences with vaping has revealed one in four teens are ‘hidden’ and at-risk of vaping, and that owning your own vape is a critical enabler of addiction.
The Influencing Gen Vape research, led by Perth-based social enterprise The Behaviour Change Collaborative (The BCC), in partnership with health promotion foundation VicHealth, involved surveys with almost 3,700 teenagers across Australia.
The Behaviour Change Collaborative’s Founder and Managing Director, Luke van der Beeke, said the research identified seven different groups of teenagers when it comes to vaping, all requiring nuanced information and support.
“It’s important to not just think of young people as either ‘vapers’ or ‘non-vapers’,” Mr. van der Beeke said. “Our research shows that it’s more nuanced than that, so our approach to addressing the issue needs to be more nuanced too.
“For example, the teenager who is curious but hasn’t tried vaping needs a different conversation and different information to the teen who is experimenting or the one who is addicted.”
Consistent with recent academic studies, The BCC’s research found about one-third of teenagers have tried vaping.
In addition, the research reveals that amongst those who haven’t ever vaped, there is a group of ‘susceptible’ teenagers, who are at a higher risk of vaping in the future.
“These ‘susceptible’ teenagers can otherwise be overlooked in the non-vaping count – we now have good insight into where they are at with vaping, what makes them susceptible, and how to strengthen their resolve to reject and avoid vaping,” Mr van der Beeke said.
The Behaviour Change Collaborative’s Director Behavioural Insight, Donna van Bueren, said of those involved in the study, one-fifth are currently vaping, at different levels of use.
“The research reveals a particular group of teenagers, the ‘experimenters’, believe that they are in control of their vaping and will not become addicted because they don’t vape very often,” she said.
“We also discovered that owning a vape is a critical enabler of addiction – after purchasing their own, the teenager’s vaping frequency escalates, followed by nicotine withdrawal and signs of addiction.
“Another key insight showed that many teens start vaping and increase how often they vape for mental health reasons – coping with stress, managing their anxiety, helping them to relax. It’s important to support teens to manage their mental wellbeing in positive and healthy ways.”
The Influencing Gen Vape research was designed to discover the most effective messages, information, skills and supports teenagers need to discourage them from vaping in the future.
VicHealth CEO, Dr Sandro Demaio, said this research arms parents and the community with powerful knowledge on how to support teens.
“We’re proud to partner with The Behaviour Change Collaborative on this groundbreaking project, and to start sharing the important findings with those working in sectors, such as local government, health promotion, community sport and education,” Dr Demaio said.
“Our collective goal is for the learnings to support local communities to craft health promotion interventions and messaging that will positively influence teens’ attitudes and behaviours towards vaping.”
The research also revealed that most teenagers, including older teens, care most about the opinion of their parents, above all others. In light of this finding and building on this and previous studies, The BCC, with the support of VicHealth, has written Talking to your teen about vaping, an evidence-based guide to help parents and caregivers navigate conversations about vaping with their child.
About the study:
Influencing Gen Vape: Unveiling insights into segments of teen vaping categorises young people into distinct segments, decoding their motivations, attitudes and behaviours towards vaping.
As part of the research, online surveys and in-depth conversations were held with 3,699 teenagers aged 12-18 years from across Australia between July – September 2023.
This study gives insights into how to craft health promotion interventions and messaging that will positively influence teens’ attitudes and behaviours towards vaping.
Key insights from Influencing Gen Vape include:
It’s important to reinforce and reward teens’ decision not to vape, as well as encouraging experimenting teens to stop and helping addicted teens to quit.
The role of stress: Many teens start vaping and increase how often they vape for mental health reasons – coping with stress, managing their anxiety, helping them to relax. Parents and health professionals can support them to explore alternative ways to manage these feelings.
Focus on susceptible teens: A group of ‘susceptible’ at-risk teenagers were identified. They’re curious about vaping, have the opportunity to share a vape with friends, and many think they might try vaping in the future.
Owning your own vape is a critical enabler of addiction: After purchasing their own vape, teens’ vaping frequency escalates, followed by nicotine withdrawal and signs of addiction.
A parent’s opinion really matters: Some teens don’t vape because they don’t want to disappoint their parents. It’s important for parents to let them know they think vaping is a harmful decision.
Different teenagers have different needs for information, persuasion and support, so a tailored approach is needed. The Talking to your teen about vaping conversation guide helps parents and carers identify which approach will best suit their child.
An Australian-first research project which aims to deeply understand teenagers’ experiences with vaping has revealed that parents hold more power and influence in tackling vaping than they might realise.
The Influencing Gen Vape research, led by The Behaviour Change Collaborative in partnership with VicHealth, involved surveys and in-depth conversations with over 3,500 teenagers across Australia.
The results have been used to create Talking to your teen about vaping, an evidence-informed conversation guide for parents and carers. The guide helps decode a teenager’s motivations, attitudes and behaviours towards vaping, and understand what messages resonate most.
The BCC’s Managing Director Luke van der Beeke said it was important to not just think of young people as either ‘vapers’ or ‘non-vapers’.
“Our research shows it’s more nuanced than that, so our approach to addressing the issue needs to be more nuanced too.
“For example, the teenager who is curious but hasn’t tried vaping needs a different conversation and different information to the teen who is experimenting or the one who is addicted,” he said.
Dr Sandro Demaio, VicHealth CEO, said it was a welcome finding from the research to see that teenagers really trust their parents and value their opinions.
“Many parents and carers say they feel powerless when it comes to vaping, which is completely understandable.
“So, it was interesting and exciting to find that most teenagers, including those who vape, genuinely care what their parents think.
“We’re proud to partner with The Behaviour Change Collaborative on this groundbreaking project, and to start sharing the important findings with those working to positively influence teens’ attitudes and behaviours towards vaping,” Dr Demaio said.
The goal of the research, and the partnership more broadly, is for learnings to support local communities to craft health promotion interventions and messaging that will positively influence teens’ attitudes and behaviours towards vaping.
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
Lao Tzu – Tao Te Ching
New Year’s resolutions are a time-honored tradition, a chance to set goals and make changes. However, many of us struggle to stick to these resolutions. The key to success lies in understanding our habits and leveraging them to our advantage. Let’s delve into the world of behavioural science to understand how we can use habits to help achieve our New Year’s resolutions.
Understanding habits
Habits are automatic responses to specific cues in our environment. They consist of three parts: the cue, the routine, and the reward. This is known as the Habit Loop. The cue triggers the routine, and the reward reinforces the habit.
To form a new habit, we need to establish a clear cue, a routine, and a reward. For example, if your resolution is to exercise more, your cue could be putting on your workout clothes, your routine could be a 30-minute workout, and your reward could be a healthy post-workout snack.
Changing an existing habit involves identifying the cue and reward and changing the routine. For instance, if you have a habit of eating junk food when you’re stressed (cue), you could change the routine to taking a walk or meditating, while still satisfying the reward of stress relief.
Behavioural science teaches us that we’re more likely to stick to habits that are easy, attractive, immediate, and satisfying. This is known as the Four Laws of Behaviour Change. Make your new habit easy by starting small, make it attractive by linking it to something you enjoy, make the reward immediate, and ensure it’s satisfying.
Figure 1: Habit loop
A checklist for achieving your New Year’s Resolutions
Here’s a simple checklist for you to use to help achieve your goals.
Identify Your Resolution: Be clear about what you want to achieve.
Understand the Habit Loop: Identify the cue, routine, and reward.
Form a New Habit: Establish a clear cue, routine, and reward.
Change an Existing Habit: Identify the cue and reward and change the routine.
Apply the Four Laws of Behaviour Change: Make your habit easy, attractive, immediate, and satisfying.
Cues
Cues are triggers that initiate a habit. They can come in various forms and are often linked to our environment or our daily routines. Examples include:
Time: A specific time of day can serve as a cue. For example, brushing your teeth first thing in the morning or right before bed.
Location: A particular place can trigger a habit. For instance, sitting at your desk might cue you to check your emails.
Preceding Event: One action can lead to another. If you always have a cup of coffee after breakfast, the act of finishing breakfast is the cue for the coffee habit.
Emotional State: Feelings can also serve as cues. For example, stress might cue you to bite your nails or snack on junk food.
Other People: The presence of certain people can trigger habits. For instance, meeting a particular friend might cue you to gossip.
Routine
A routine is the behavior that you perform, usually automatically and in response to the cue. It’s the actual ‘habit’ that you’re trying to establish or change. For example, if your habit is to go for a run every morning, the routine is the act of running.
Reward
This is the positive reinforcement that follows the routine. It’s what your brain associates with the pleasure or benefit of completing the routine, which strengthens the habit loop. The reward could be anything that you find enjoyable or satisfying. In the running example, the reward might be the feeling of accomplishment after a good run, the endorphin rush, or even a healthy post-run snack.
By manipulating the routine and reward you can change or form new habits. For instance, if you want to establish a habit of studying every evening, you could set a routine (studying for an hour after dinner) and a reward (a small treat or relaxation time afterwards). Over time, your brain will start to associate the cue (finishing dinner) with the reward, making the routine easier to stick to.
Making new habits ‘stick’
Making a habit stick involves a combination of understanding the habit loop and applying the principles of behavioural science. Here are some strategies:
Consistency: The more consistently you perform your habit, the more ingrained it becomes. Try to perform your new habit at the same time and place every day to reinforce the cue and make the habit automatic.
Start Small: Begin with a habit that’s so easy you can’t say no to it. Once the habit is established, you can gradually increase the complexity or duration.
Immediate Rewards: Immediate rewards are more effective than delayed rewards. Find a way to make your habit immediately satisfying to help reinforce the behavior.
Accountability: Share your goal with others or find a habit buddy. Accountability can provide an extra layer of motivation to stick to your habit.
Patience: Remember, habits take time to form. Don’t be discouraged by setbacks. Persistence is key.
Positive Reinforcement: Celebrate your successes, no matter how small. Positive reinforcement can help motivate you to keep going.
The goal is to make the habit a part of your identity. You’re not just trying to exercise regularly; you’re becoming a person who values health and fitness. This shift in mindset can make your habits stick. Start small, be consistent, and soon, you’ll find yourself making progress towards your New Year’s resolutions. Good luck!
The Behaviour Change Collaborative (The BCC) and VicHealth have joined forces on a major research project to explore teen vaping across Australia.
The project builds on The BCC’s Healthway funded Being Gen Vape research which provided insights into existing vaping attitudes, motivations and behaviours, and a preliminary model for the segmentation of teen vaping behaviour.
The value of quantification is not solely in establishing vaping prevalence but in the ability to profile each segment by motivation (need) and attitudes, behavioural patterns, and trajectory to addiction. This will help to identify whether targeted interventions should be prevention based or cessation based, and for whom.
“We’re pleased to be partnering with VicHealth on such an important public health issue,” said The BCC’s founder and managing director, Luke van der Beeke.
The intent of the research is to provide outputs that help interested parties to set policy and intervention priorities, strategy directions, and intervention activities. We want to contribute to a coordinated, evidence-informed approach to addressing teen vaping. The findings of the research will be delivered in a user-friendly and fit-for-purpose format that can be shared widely across sectors.
“This piece of work is intended to augment existing research projects and activities. Our focus is on the delivery of behaviourally informed findings that can be picked up and used to inform future practice,” Mr van der Beeke said.
Our earlier research clearly indicates that mass reach single-theme messaging will have limited impact with respect to breadth and scale, because of the clear existence of different attitudinal and behavioural teen vaping segments.
This research will help to direct communications content, so that it focused on the right motivation and persuasive message and can be targeted at the right group.
“We’re looking forward to generating findings that can be picked up and used by governments, NGO’s, and other stakeholders to inform health communications campaigns, as well as multi-lever health promotion and social marketing strategies,” Mr van der Beeke said.
If you’re a high school teacher, or the parent of a child in high school and you would like to get involved with this research, please email hello@thebcc.org.au
The Behaviour Change Collaborative was contacted by ABC Mornings for an interview about our Being Gen Vape research following news of increased calls to help lines from teens struggling with vaping.
The interview with Luke van der Beeke is available in full below.
Eddie Williams interview with Luke van der Beeke (MP3)
by ABC Mornings Pilbara and Kimberley 16 November, 2022
If you’re a parent and keen to know more about our research on teen vaping and what teens think adults need to know you may be interested in our upcoming parent information webinar.
Social marketing – the use of commercial marketing and communication techniques for social purposes – is a powerful tool for positively and voluntarily changing the behaviours of individuals and populations.
Social marketing is more than the use of just social media, or advertising, or any other single tool; it is the strategic choice and use of a combination of techniques, products and technologies to achieve voluntary behaviour change for social good.
Social marketing in New Zealand has a varied recent history. It has come in and out of fashion with different administrations, and the public sector’s institutional understanding of the evidence base and key tenets of good practice has waxed and waned. Achieving social behaviour change is complex and there are many traps for inexperienced or careless players: underinvestment, over-communication, and short-termism to name just a few.
But through this history New Zealand is blessed with a number of experts – within the public sector and in its partners in the private, academic and non-government sectors – with practical experience and theoretical insights to contribute.
The pandemic and the long term social-impacts it will create provide fresh challenges for social marketing and behaviour change practitioners in the public sector. Many of the social problems that social marketing sets out to address will be more difficult to solve; more complex and more entrenched. But these challenging times also bring an opportunity to reflect on lessons of the past and change how we work; to modernise our practice and make it more progressive.
Three enduring features of good practice
The success of the Government’s COVID-19 communication and marketing programme, causing nearly the entire population to change working, social and recreational habits almost over night, is evidence of just how powerful this tool can be, and how capable the public sector is of wielding it effectively, alongside strong policy and regulatory initiatives.
The actions of the New Zealand Government in March set out almost a case book for how to approach behaviour change. That’s not to say they’ve got everything right – and time will no doubt be the critic’s friend, as hindsight reveals flaws like no other kind of vision ever can. But the scale of public behaviour change relating to COVID-19, and the rapidity of it, is unlike anything we’ve seen before.
In part, we can attribute this to the clear and obvious need to act, that was playing out on the global stage. But in mid-March the Government was walking a tightrope: if it had moved too soon, it would have moved ahead of public willingness to respond and comply. If it had moved too slowly it would have risked panic, confusion and losing the trust that was so crucial in bringing people along. So the COVID-19 programme is a great case study for the enduring features of behaviour change best practice.
First, it took a multi-layered and integrated approach to communications, ensuring they were unmissable for the target audience (in this case – and perhaps for the only time in history justifiably – all New Zealanders). Rather than relying on one mechanism (for example, television advertising), the campaign is visible through news media, social media, advertising on a very wide range of channels; through partnerships and use of collateral; through word of mouth and aligned spokespeople from every agency of Government (and beyond). And it was repetitive and enduring — with briefings to media and the public happening daily and all other forms of marketing and commentary sustained throughout the lockdown phase and beyond.
The second key tenet of best practice, where the COVID-19 campaign is so strong, is its clear focus on behaviour (and a single, “non-divisible” behaviour [1] at that). The Government didn’t ask people to “be virus-wise” or promote a bundle of behaviours (eg “protect our community”). Instead, the simple catch cry that headlined every communication from the start of the COVID-19 response was “stay home”. Although there was debate about what we might be allowed to do if we didn’t stay home (can I surf? Can I go mountain-biking?) these were marginal to what was a very swift response at a mass level, that was enabled by the absolute clarity of the message.
The third tenet of best practice (and perhaps the most important) is a focus on the audience, or citizens. The UK’s National Social Marketing Centre’s Benchmark Criteria make this clear, placing Customer Orientation as their first criterion. Successful behaviour change programmes understand and respond to what will motivate people; and what will stop them from behaving the way you need them to. We have seen with the COVID-19 communications a powerful balance held between the policy changes required by the science and economics of the pandemic; and the emotional and practical needs of the citizens who would be asked to implement those changes.
Not every programme over the years has had the success of the COVID-19 communications, in part because not all programmes have been designed in a way that is consistent with good practice; but other difficulties have also been in play. Less perceived urgency, less investment, less combined expertise in the creation of the programme and less strength in leadership have all been a feature of our practice’s history – and will likely be so in the future, for we are all human, and human behaviour change is particularly complex and difficult.
And if it was complex in the past, in the immediate, post-COVID future we will have new challenges, as communities are harder pressed than ever before. Even at its evidence-based best, old social marketing practice might not be enough to see us through. This is a moment to test the State’s involvement in social marketing, and to find new ways to operate to meet these challenges.
An invitation to change
As we imagine the post-COVID-19 future, some features stand out more than others as potentially challenging for public sector behaviour change practice; and open the door to some interesting new ways to work.
These features were not absent in the past, but our practice has generally been slow to respond to them. My hope is that now it will be clear we must tackle them; and that now we will be able to find previously unreachable ways to do so.
First we have an opportunity to really examine how social marketing practice contributes to or reduces inequalities. Despite generally setting out to reduce inequality, in some cases social marketing practice has had the opposite impact; either by increasing inequality; or increasing the stigma that is associated with inequality. To a degree, it is in the very nature of social marketing, which targets communities perceived as being most in need of change; but this is exacerbated in the way many programmes are initiated, conceived and conducted; by reinforcing dependency and deficits, and taking an expert-led, rather than community-led approach.
With the very real risk of deepening health, social and economic inequality as a result of COVID-19, we have the opportunity and the obligation to ask ourselves, how can our practice contribute to reducing inequality? What can we do differently to shift the balance of power? How can we shift our practice from paternalism to partnership?
Community-based practice and true co-design are not new concepts, and they are in place in some programmes and some areas. But these days they are the domain of the brave and the patient; they are like the slow food of policy and behaviour change practice; they demand a degree of flexibility and openness that isn’t always easy to achieve. But what an opportunity we have now to find the time and the space to deeply and genuinely engage with communities, and to ensure our approaches are designed in ways that enable those communities to participate in engagement.
A second area for reflection for behaviour change practice lies in our response to the deepening complexity of social problems. The problems themselves do not arise from a single source; so the solutions should not arise from a single source either. And so another opportunity we can seize now is to act on what UK think tank Demos has called the public sector’s “moral obligation” to collaborate.
Collaboration has been an unresolved question for social marketing and behaviour change practice for many years. It’s an area where intention and action have been slow to connect, as the time needed to collaborate generally works against the sometimes urgent (and perhaps artificial) deadlines for many behaviour change programmes. COVID-19 has shown us that collaboration can happen, even in genuinely urgent circumstances, and that determined leadership can make it happen. The benefits of that collaboration are obvious, and enduring.
The third challenge and opportunity that the pandemic and its aftermath invite us to consider is an external one. Like the others it is not new; and like the others, the current environment makes it more urgent to confront than ever – and more possible.
How does the rapidly changing media environment change our ways of reaching people with our behaviour change programmes? What does the loss of orthodoxy mean for our ability to communicate with many people, from a single source? What opportunities and risks arise from the voice that social media has conferred on people previously invisible in a heavily mainstreamed media and entertainment context?
If good communications is “simple clear messages, repeated often, by a variety of trusted sources [2]”, how can we take advantage of the new environment to identify, empower and motivate a greater variety of trusted sources? And let us be careful not to transfer our old over-reliance on “above the line” communications (advertising) into the new paradigm, but find ways to elevate real and diverse community voices through a rich portfolio of channels.
The benefits of these approaches will be manifold: In a future of greater collaboration we may see fewer social marketing programmes initiating from Government, and at the same time, more that address root causes of harm. In a future of greater citizen-centricity, we may see greater shared ownership of problems and solutions; in a future of more diverse communication channels we may see a wider range of voices sharing social good messaging in more intimate and trusted ways.
Marketing and communication are powerful tools government can use to generate real and positive change for New Zealand citizens. Right now – when so much has changed; and we are rethinking what our future might look like – we have the opportunity to embed good behaviour change practice more consistently, and create new approaches that put communities and citizens at the centre. It’s a bright future, if we are patient and brave.
[1] Doug McKenzie-Mohr, Community Based Social Marketing www.cbsm.com
This article was first published under the title “The State and Social Marketing: Can We Embrace Change” by the New Zealand Public Service Association as part of its Progressive Thinking series. You can read other articles in the series here.
[2] Dr Edward Maibach, in conversation.
Featured Image Credit: “Covid-19 handmade facemask” by Flickr User Olgierd
