Knowledge, Perceptions and Behaviours of Young People towards E-cigarettes/Vaping Survey

The Public Health Agency is carrying out an important study on the views and experiences of young people towards e-cigarettes/vaping. This study will help us understand young people’s knowledge, perceptions, beliefs and attitudes towards vaping and inform the future design of targeted interventions and communications with regards to vape use by young people.

We are inviting post-primary school pupils to participate in an on-line survey. The PHA do not have access to the name and contact details of every post-primary school pupil so they will be invited to take part in the survey by an email distributed through their own school.

Why this survey is needed?

Your child’s feedback is important as it is the best way for us to understand their knowledge and perceptions of the health risks of e-cigarette use, exposure to the promotion of e-cigarettes and their experiences. It will allow us to determine why young people vape and identify any barriers that may prevent young people to stop using e-cigarettes/vapes. We are currently working on developing a resource bank that can be used by children and young people, schools, and parents and an essential part of this is to understand young people’s perceptions and behaviours towards vaping.

The information gathered through this survey contributes to:

• an insight into beliefs, attitudes and behaviours to vaping amongst young people;

• future messaging to encourage young people not to vape and reduce the uptake of vaping among young people;

• future messaging to encourage young people who vape to quit;

• development of a resource bank with the aim of educating on the potential risks of vaping.

We ask for your support in this important study and to encourage your child to participate and if he or she is unsure or has any concerns about participating we would encourage you to discuss the benefits this study will have to allow them to make an informed decision about taking part. The findings from this survey will help inform key messaging; help us to develop better services and interventions; and key educational resources for children and young people; parents; and schools with regards to e-cigarette use/vaping.