A new study has been released showing that some parents may know little about their children’s vaping habits.
In the survey of 1,325 parents, 3 percent of parents of teens ages 15 to 18 said their children had vaped, compared with 1 percent of parents of children ages 11 to 14.
That’s well below the U.S. national average, which in 2022 found that about 3 percent of middle school students and 14 percent of high school students had vaped in the past 30 days.
“This relatively high level of vaping suggests that parents should not assume that their children do not vape,” the study said.
in England, 9% of 11- to 15-year-old school children report having vaped in 2021up from 6 percent in 2018, the last time the study was conducted.
E-cigarettes are most popular among 15-year-old girls, with more than one in five saying they are current vapers.
this Report Parents’ views on vaping were conducted at the University of Michigan’s CS Mott Children’s Hospital, which conducts a national poll on children’s health.
The survey found that the majority of parents (48%) felt they definitely knew or probably knew (40%) whether their child was vaping.
Parents said they would know because their children would tell them (67%), they would find vaping supplies in their children’s stuff (57%), they would smell them (48%), or learn about them from others ( 37%).
The report reminds parents that “testing can be harder than parents realize”.
E-cigarettes do not emit the same smell as cigarettes, pods often look like USB sticks or other innocuous items, and disposable e-cigarettes are small and easy to buy, use and discard.
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“Even the use of e-cigarettes in indoor areas such as bedrooms, bathrooms and classrooms is easily detected by teachers and parents,” the report said.
“Parents are likely to have a hard time knowing if their child is using disposable e-cigarettes.”
The study also showed that most parents believed their children understood the health risks of vaping, including chronic bronchitis, asthma exacerbations, and lung swelling and irritation.
“Although four out of five parents in this Mott Poll believe their children are aware of these risks, it may be unrealistic to expect adolescents to consider the long-term health implications,” the report said.