PROJECT SUMMARY
The overall goals of this K01 Mentored Career Development Award are to understand how young adults’ (age
18-25) social media use affects their nicotine vaping and to identify intervention targets that mitigate social
media’s impact on vaping. Prevalence of vaping and social media use among young adults have increased in
tandem. Exposure to vaping-related social media content is common and is associated with vaping. Intense
social media use appears to contribute to young adults’ increased mental health symptoms, which are linked to
tobacco product use. This project aims to contribute to scientific understanding of the causal links between
social media use and vaping in young adulthood and to explore solutions to reduce young adults’ vaping and
improve their mental health. In Study 1, young adults with past-month vaping will report time spent on social
media, vaping-related social media content exposure, social comparison on social media, mental health, and
vaping behavior. After a 1-month baseline measurement period, they will be randomized to reduce their social
media use (incentivized) or use social media as usual for a 3-month experimental period. Longitudinal within-
and between-subjects analyses will test relationships between time spent on social media, risk factors for
vaping, and vaping behavior. In Study 2, young adults will participate in focus groups exploring intervention
strategies for reducing social media use and vaping and improving their mental health. Potential intervention
targets will include any significant risk factors for vaping identified in Study 1. Specific research aims are to: (1)
investigate the relationships between a reduction in social media use and: a) vaping content exposure, b)
social comparison, and c) mental health; (2) examine whether reducing social media use reduces past-month
vaping days, vaping episodes per vaping day, and puffs per vaping episode; and (3) explore digital intervention
strategies for reducing young adults’ social media use and vaping. At the University of Southern California, the
candidate will pursue the following training aims: (1) to develop expertise in young adults’ behavioral health; (2)
to learn and employ longitudinal statistical modeling to analyze relationships between social media activity,
vaping, and mental health; and (3) to use qualitative data to inform the development of health behavior
intervention strategies in a digital context. This project will support the candidate’s development as an
independent investigator with expertise in digital and behavioral health.