THE EPAV PROJECT

EPrevention And Vaping (EPAV):

Mobilizing youth-generated evidence to co-produce a digital e-cigarette intervention

Why we’re doing this project

The history of failed tobacco prevention and substance use campaigns targeted at youth has taught us that effective health promotion begins with evidence that centres young people’s experiences in meaningful ways. Efforts to prevent youth vaping in Canada do not reflect consideration for the youth cultures and contexts in which this behaviour is embedded. To successfully resonate with youth, efforts need to move beyond simply addressing perceptions of harmlessness, and more meaningfully incorporate youth contexts and cultures, especially on platforms in which youth frequently engage, such as social media. It is under this premise that this project prioritizes youth engagement, with plans for addressing vaping among young Canadians via strategies that are driven by youth themselves. This project leverages evidence generated from two separate participatory studies with youth (“Y-VAPE” by PI Struik and “Teens Talk Vaping” by PI Coen) that sought to understand vaping in the context of teens’ everyday lives and experiences.

Our GOALS

The aim of this inter-provincial project is to mobilize youth-generated evidence about vaping to co-produce scalable vaping prevention messages with youth.

Our objectives are to:

Develop youth-driven, equity-centred, vaping prevention messages for social media platforms;

Determine the salience of the messages among diverse youth;

Assess the effectiveness of the messages among diverse youth; and

Support uptake and implementation of these messages.

Grant Image Diagram

Our Approach

Our work takes a fully integrated knowledge translation (iKT) approach in that we collaborate with youth as co-researchers on all phases of the project and partner with knowledge users (school boards, health units, community agencies) who can apply our findings in their contexts. Our participatory design leverages a pre-existing and highly developed collaboration with youth co-researchers who were fully trained in their roles on the “Teens Talk Vaping” project, and youth researchers from the “Y-VAPE” project. Modelled on the creative methodology already established in both projects, youth co-researchers will engage diverse youth in a series of co-production workshops to develop vaping prevention messages for testing. We will then carry out a formative evaluation to assess the co-production process and a summative evaluation to assess early impacts of the prevention messages. Finally, we will employ stakeholder engagement strategies to implement and disseminate the messages.

The Bigger Picture

To our knowledge, this will be the first Canadian vaping prevention intervention coproduced with youth for youth. By leveraging digital technologies that are nearly ubiquitous among youth, this work carries significant potential to reach a large audience of youth. The partnerships and collaborations among youth and established research partners across the nation will lend to a concerted effort to push the boundaries in relation to how to effectively address vaping-related risks, and curb their risk for years to come.

Learn more about our research on vaping

Download these infographics developed by our Youth Co-Researchers

Empowering Teens Infographic

Empowering Teens as Co-Researchers

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Teens Talk Vaping

Teens Talk Vaping

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The Decision to Vape: Influences on Youth

The Decision to Vape: Influences on Youth

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Behavior Change Techniques in Vaping Prevention

Behavior Change Techniques in Vaping Prevention

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Vape Marketing Policy Shifts

Vape Marketing Policy Shifts

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Vaping Factors for Indigenous Youth

Vaping Factors for Indigenous Youth

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