In recent years, vaping has rapidly emerged as a pressing public health concern in Israel, particularly among adolescents. While adult use remains relatively modest, the rising prevalence among young people has raised significant concerns regarding nicotine dependence and long-term health outcomes.
By 2024, 46% of 15–17-year-olds who had experimented with smoking reported that e-cigarettes were their first product. Current use was also widespread: 15.7% of 15–17-year-olds and 7.6% of 12–14-year-olds identified as active users. Vaping was the leading gateway into nicotine use for young people in Israel.
Regulators responded with a series of measures. As part of this work, Smoke Free Israel looked beyond national borders to understand how young people perceive vaping and how regulation influences behaviour.
Smoke Free Israel’s CEO Shira Kislev recalled her first encounter with The Behaviour Change Collaborative’s (The BCC) youth vaping research in Australia:
“I first came across The Behaviour Change Collaborative’s Influencing Gen Vape research in Professor Chapman’s blog, and it immediately stood out to me. The findings closely reflected patterns we were beginning to observe in Israel.
At that time, we were also preparing our own focus groups with teenagers to better understand the local dynamics of vaping, which made the research particularly relevant and timely.”
Kislev commented on a LinkedIn post about the research, to which The BCC’s Founder and Managing Director, Luke van der Beeke, responded and suggested a meeting. The pair met via Teams to discuss the research in more detail, and specifically, its implications for policy in Israel.
Twelve months later new regulations had come into effect and The BCC’s work was cited in the Regulatory Impact Assessment.
“For us, the BCC’s youth research was more than interesting – it directly shaped policy. When Israel passed new regulations in 2025, the findings helped ensure that health warnings cover 75% of every tobacco and nicotine package, including e-cigarettes.”
Shira Kislev, CEO, Smoke Free Israel
Kislev emphasised that The BCC’s youth vaping research went beyond Smoke Free Israel’s organisational objectives. It offered insights that deepened understanding of the vaping phenomenon and informed the broader regulatory process.
“The Being Gen Vape report allowed us to reflect on what was similar and what was different in Israel. When the patterns were similar, it strengthened the validity of what we were observing locally. When they differed, it pushed us to ask why, and to consider what those differences meant.”
At the time, Israeli law mandated plain packaging but relied only on text-based warnings. The BCC’s findings revealed that when vape warnings looked different from cigarette warnings, adolescents assumed vaping was safer.
“With cigarettes, at least they’re showing on the package what smoking cigarettes can do to you. And they don’t do that on vape boxes.” – Influencing Gen Vape (Year 7/8, male, vapes)
This insight was also cited in Israel’s Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA), supporting legislation for combined picture-and-text warnings and reinforcing the need for consistency across all nicotine products to avoid misperceptions of risk.
“The BCC’s youth vaping research offered a powerful reminder of how regulation shapes perception.”
By 2025, Israel’s new regulations came into effect. All tobacco and nicotine products, including cigarettes, roll-your-own tobacco, hookah, and e-cigarettes were required to carry picture-and-text health warnings covering 75% of packaging.
Israel’s experience underscores the importance of cross-national evidence in shaping effective public health policy. Insights from The BCC’s research have helped validate local findings, refine understanding, and strengthen regulation.
Being Gen Vape was published in 2022 by The Behaviour Change Collaborative. The research was funded by Heathway WA, supported by an in-kind contribution of $30,000 by The BCC. We also released Implications for Intervention Design which has been used extensively by health practitioners in Australia and overseas.
The Behaviour Change Collaborative then secured funding from the Victorian Health Promotion Association (VicHealth) to design and conduct a behavioural segmentation of teen vaping. The resulting report, Influencing Gen Vape, was launched in 2024 and continues to be used to inform campaigns and social marketing programs.
We also authored Talking to Your Teen About Vaping – A Conversation Guide for Parents – developed in partnership with VicHealth.
All documents are available on our resources page.
Finally, The BCC would like to sincerely thank Shira Kislev for being so generous with her time and contributing to this article.
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.
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
A ground-breaking behavioural study by Perth-based social enterprise The Behaviour Change Collaborative (The BCC) has found that for most teens, vaping is perceived as normal.
The BCC’s Founder and Managing Director Luke van der Beeke said teenagers themselves confirmed the growing evidence that vaping amongst their peers is widespread.
The research was conducted over two iterative stages with 92 Western Australian teenagers attending school years 7-12. It sheds some much-needed light on the knowledge, perceptions, attitudes and influences on teen vaping in Western Australia.
“While many teens know vaping is ‘bad for them’, their knowledge is superficial. For teens who vape, the benefits far outweigh the costs.
“And for teens, the key benefits are the nicotine hit and the flavourings,” Mr van der Beeke said.
The BCC’s Director Behavioural Insight and project lead Donna van Bueren said the research revealed that for most teens, vaping without nicotine or flavour is considered ‘pointless’.
“The majority of teenagers we spoke with who vape, but do not consider themselves addicted, believe they can reduce their risk by limiting their use.
“And many said they didn’t realise they were addicted until it was too late – most of these expressed regret at having started.
“They also try to reconcile their decision to vape with a belief that vaping isn’t as bad as cigarettes, drugs and self-harm.
“Teens believe vapes are just as addictive as cigarettes, but less harmful. They also find vapes much more appealing,” Mrs van Bueren said.
The absence of clear signals such as health warnings and ingredient labelling on vape packaging and the device itself was found to reinforce the perception that vapes were less harmful than cigarettes.
The research found that youth involvement with vaping isn’t as clear cut as grouping teens into those who vape and those who don’t. Vaping use falls along a continuum from having not tried it and having no desire to do so, to those who are dependent on the product.
Age has some bearing on vaping behaviour but is not the determining factor.
The research also suggests teens reject the notion that vaping is bound up in identity or stereotypes. Rather, it’s just something teenagers do. Most teens were socially introduced to vaping, with their first experience usually occurring in school bathrooms, at parties or friends’ houses.
“The sharing of a vape is a large part of the appeal and is considered normal and omnipresent,” Mrs van Bueren said.
The research indicates that disposable vapes are the most commonly used because they’re easy to access, and cheaper to buy than refillable vapes.
The study found older teens might buy vapes directly from retailers and have rarely, if ever, been asked for ID. Social media trading via ‘drops’ is also common, while younger teens may access vapes through older friends and siblings.
Mr van der Beeke said the research was specifically designed to generate insights that could be used by others to design and pilot interventions to address teen vaping.
“Like everyone in the public health sector, over the past few years we’ve grown increasingly concerned about the apparent increase in vape use amongst children and teenagers.
“There’s a lot of valuable research being undertaken at the moment, and ours adds a behavioural lens to the mix.
“We thought an exploration of the attitudinal and behavioural drivers of teens who vape, and equally importantly, those who don’t vape, would be of real value to efforts to combat this growing public health challenge.
“We’re thankful to Healthway for funding the research and look forward to working with key stakeholders to help address this issue,” Mr van der Beeke said.
