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Objectives: Adolescent use of electronic cigarettes has risen dramatically, prompting concerns about the health effects. There is need for brief measures to assess adolescents' perceived threat and efficacy related to e-cigarette use and cessation. A 12-item Likert-type scale was modeled after the Risk Behavior Diagnosis Scale and designed to assess threat (ie, severity and susceptibility of threat) and efficacy (ie, self-efficacy and response efficacy) as they relate to e-cigarette use. Methods: The scale was administered online to a developmental sample of 674 adolescents to examine internal consistency and factor structure. Participants (52.1% female, M age = 14.6) were representative of the surrounding community (60% non-Hispanic white; 27% non-Hispanic black; 8% Hispanic). Results: Factor analysis and Velicer's minimum average partial test revealed 2 factors (as expected), which explained 68% of the variance. Analyses revealed strong internal consistency, with Cronbach's alpha of .93 overall and alphas of .92 and .87 for threat and efficacy subscales, respectively. The measure also exhibited good convergent and discriminant validity with other constructs. Conclusions: The measure demonstrates strong preliminary reliability and validity for a developmental sample of adolescents.

Introduction E-cigarettes are now the most common form of tobacco use among adolescents, and use is associated with increased risk of initiation of cigarette smoking. This project used a community-engaged research process to develop and pilot a risk communication campaign to prevent youth vaping. Method The research team worked with a 36-member Teen Advisory Council and a 19-member Expert Panel. Together, the team employed survey (N = 674) and focus group (N = 82) methodologies, and hired a marketing company to partner on development of the campaign. Campaign concepts were developed, eliminated, and/or modified through an iterative process of feedback and refinement. The final campaign included video ads ( https://bit.ly/2QMR8gH ) a microsite ( rethinkvape.org ), and social media sites (@rethinkvape). The campaign communicated three messages to teens: what’s in the vapor, health risks, and connections to big tobacco. Prior to launch of the campaign, a randomized controlled 2 (time) × 2 (group) online experiment was conducted to evaluate the campaign (N = 268). Results Repeated measures mixed analyses of variance indicated that vaping knowledge, perceptions of risk, and anti-vape intentions significantly increased among teens viewing the Rethink Vape Materials compared to their own baseline, while control participants did not change. Following evaluation, the team launched a 6-week online media campaign with a teen-targeted geo-fence radius to deliver 3,838,465 impressions, 770,443 completed video views, and 18,316 clicks in mobile app, Snapchat, YouTube, and Spotify platforms. The majority of placements exceeded industry standards, with mobile pre-roll and Snapchat as top performers. Conclusions The e-cigarette campaign showed promising signs of effectiveness and scalability.