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Cigarette Use and Vaping Among Sexual and Gender Minority (SGM) Adolescents Assigned Male at Birth: Patterns of Use and Associations with Demographic and Psychosocial Factors

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Abstract

Background

This study described cigarette and electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDs) use and their demographic and psychosocial correlates in a sample of sexual and gender minority (SGM) adolescents assigned male at birth.

Methods

One-way ANOVA, multivariate linear regression, and correlation analyses were conducted to examine correlates of cigarettes/ENDs use on 159 SGM adolescent users, ages 15–18.

Results

Fifty-three percent of the sample used cigarettes/ENDs, with differences based on sexual orientation: bisexual, pansexual, and queer adolescents used ENDs more than gay adolescents. White adolescents smoked more cigarettes than adolescents of color, independent of ENDs use. Regarding psychosocial correlates, alcohol use and depression were associated with greater daily cigarette use, while sexual orientation identity was associated with greater daily ENDs use.

Conclusions

This study characterized frequency and psychosocial correlates of cigarettes/ENDs use among SGM adolescents. Findings highlighted several risk factors for tobacco use and will inform future interventions for SGM adolescents.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Kai Korpak, Shariell Crosby, Kitty Buehler, and Dan Ryan for their role in survey programming, data collection, and data processing, and Dr. Brian Hitsman for his feedback on earlier drafts of the paper.

Funding

This project was funded by the Sexualities Project at Northwestern. Ashley Kraus was supported by training grant TL1 TR001423 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences during manuscript preparation. This content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the views of the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, 625 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 1400, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA

    Ashley Kraus & Kathryn Macapagal

  2. Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing, Northwestern University, 625 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 1400, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA

    Ashley Kraus & Kathryn Macapagal

  3. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, 710 N. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA

    Kathryn Macapagal

  4. Associate Instructional Professor Department of Public Health Sciences, The University of Chicago, Biological Sciences Division, 5841 S. Maryland Ave., MC2000, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA

    David A. Moskowitz

  5. SDSU/UC San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, 6363 Alvarado Court, Suite 103, San Diego, CA, 92120, USA

    Junye Ma

Authors
  1. Ashley Kraus
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  2. David A. Moskowitz
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  3. Junye Ma
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  4. Kathryn Macapagal
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ashley Kraus.

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Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Kraus, A., Moskowitz, D.A., Ma, J. et al. Cigarette Use and Vaping Among Sexual and Gender Minority (SGM) Adolescents Assigned Male at Birth: Patterns of Use and Associations with Demographic and Psychosocial Factors. Int.J. Behav. Med. 29, 685–690 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-021-10037-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-021-10037-7

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