A new study from The University of Sydney’s Matilda Centre has revealed a link between poor mental health and e-cigarette use in Australian adolescents.
Participants included over 5000 Year 7 and 8 students from 40 schools in NSW, QLD and WA who were surveyed in 2023 as part of the OurFutures Vaping Trial. This is currently one of the largest datasets on adolescent vaping in Australia, and the most rigorous clinical trial of a school-based e-cigarette prevention program in the country.
Students with severe depressive symptoms were over twice as likely to have used e-cigarettes at some point in their lives compared to those without symptoms. Similarly, those who felt moderate or high levels of stress were more likely to have tried e-cigarettes than those with low stress (by 74% and 64%, respectively), and people with low or moderate wellbeing were more likely to use them than those with high wellbeing (by 105% and 60%, respectively). The results also showed that just over 8% of students aged 12-14 years old had tried e-cigarettes before and around 2% had used e-cigarettes in the last month.
Previous research from The Matilda Centre found the average age a teenager begins to vape is 14 years old, which is a critical developmental time. Around half of all lifetime mental health disorders have started by age 14, which highlights the need to step in with prevention and support measures before harms occur and to prevent vaping uptake.
These results highlight the critical need for prevention interventions targeting both e-cigarette use and mental health during early adolescence, when these issues first arise.
Read the full paper from The Matilda Centre, published in Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, here.
To read about how to have a conversation with your teen about vaping, click here.
To read about how to have a conversation with your teen about mental health, click here.
Author: Francesca Wallis
