Associations between personality, environment, and behavior and current E-cigarette use among a sample of college students.

Objective: E-cigarette use has increased among the U.S. population in recent years with estimates showing that nearly 15% of American adults have tried an e-cigarette. Problem Behavior Theory (PBT) identifies various factors influencing engagement in problem behaviors. This study explores PBT factors differentiating from current and non-current e-cigarette use among college students. Participants: A sample of 1,083 college students over the age of 18 was collected from a Mid-Atlantic university. Methods: Data was analyzed using a recursive partitioning (RP) model. Results: The RP model produced a parsimonious tree explaining 21.0% of the variance in current e-cigarette use. Significant explanatory variables included having most or all of friends who vape nicotine and greater cannabis involvement. Conclusion: This study supports RP's utility in examining health behaviors like substance use, highlighting variables for future prevention and intervention efforts. Tailored approaches targeting these factors could reduce e-cigarette use among college students.