An Online Intervention to Reduce E-cigarette Use and Cigarette Smoking Risk in Adolescents

An Online Intervention to Reduce E-cigarette Use and Potential for Cigarette Smoking in Adolescents

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if a brief digital intervention can reduce e-cigarette use and prevent cigarette smoking initiation in teenagers ages 12-17. The main questions it aims to answer are:

• Compared to the control condition, does the intervention reduce e-cigarette use frequency in teenagers?
• Compared to the control condition, does the intervention reduce risk to start smoking cigarettes in teenagers? Researchers will compare the digital intervention to see if it leads to greater reductions in e-cigarette use and smoking risk than a waitlist control condition.

Participants will complete 5 brief online surveys across 12 weeks, and some will be selected to do a post-intervention virtual interview. In this interview, participants will be asked to share their opinions about the intervention and identify areas that need refinement.

Study Overview

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Conditions: E-cigarette Use; Cigarette Smoking Risk
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Virtual Intervention for Behavioral Empowerment (VIBE)

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 150
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Denise Tran, Ph.D.; Phone Number: 17145487785; Email: denise.tran@med.usc.edu

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• be between the ages of 12 to 17
• be able to read English
• be a current resident of California
• report vaping at least one day per week in the past month
• report no history of cigarette use at screening and baseline
• have access to a computer or mobile device with internet access

Exclusion Criteria:

• currently receiving nicotine cessation services

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Digital vaping intervention; Virtual Intervention for Behavioral Empowerment (VIBE) is a one-time 30-minute online intervention that incorporates Personalized Normative Feedback (PNF) for vaping and smoking, motivational enhancement to encourage healthy behavior change, and vaping and smoking-related harms education. Lastly, strategies recommended for nicotine cessation are presented. This intervention can be completed in one sitting or split into multiple sessions and is delivered via an interactive website.	Other: Virtual Intervention for Behavioral Empowerment (VIBE); The intervention contains Personalized Normative Feedback (PNF), motivational interviewing (MI), and education about vaping and smoking harms. The program begins with the MI-based portion, which includes exploration of their experienced health and personal consequences of vaping and potential reasons for and motivation for shifting vaping behaviors (e.g., to save money, to be free from addiction). Second, the education portion involves presentation of the actual harms posed by e-cigarettes to clarify any misperceptions of the negative effects of vaping and nicotine exposure in teens. Next, users are presented with the PNF portion. In the PNF portion, participants receive feedback about their perceptions of peer vaping by presenting their typical behavior/attitude alongside their perceptions of others' behavior/attitude alongside the actual norm of the behavior/attitude. Lastly, strategies recommended for nicotine cessation are presented.
No Intervention: Waitlist control; Those in the control arm will be waitlisted and given the option to access VIBE (the intervention) at the end of study.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Days vaped in the past 7 days	Participants will report the number of days they vaped in the past 7 days.	Past 7 day vaping measured at baseline, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks post-randomization.
Times vape is picked up per day	Participants will report the number of times they picked up their device to vape per day in the past 7 days.	Past 7 day vaping measured at baseline, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks post-randomization.
Smoking Susceptibility	Smoking susceptibility will be assessed with the 4-item Expanded Susceptibility to Smoking Index, with the following responses: Definitely not, Probably not, Probably yes, and Definitely yes. This is a binary outcome. If a respondent answers "definitely not" to all four questions, they are categorized as not susceptible. Any other response on any item flags the respondent as susceptible.	Past 7 day smoking susceptibility measured at baseline, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks post-randomization.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Vaping Quit Attempts	Quit attempts will be measured with questions asking for the number of quit attempts lasting at least 1 day since the last assessment.	Vaping quit attempts in the past 7 days assessed at baseline, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks.
Vaping Descriptive Normative Perceptions	Participants will report their beliefs regarding the percentage of teens who vaped, number of days individuals their age vaped, the number of times others their age picked up their vaping device per day in the past 30 days,	Vaping normative perceptions assessed at baseline, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks.
Vaping Injunctive Normative Perceptions	Participants will report how much they believe others their age approve (or disapprove) of vaping using a 5-point Likert scale (responses options: Strongly disapprove to Strongly approve).	Vaping normative perceptions assessed at baseline, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks.
Smoking Descriptive Normative Perceptions	Participants will report their beliefs about the percentage of teens who have smoked, the number of days others their age smoked in the past 30 days, and the quantity of cigarettes others their age smoked per day in the past 30 days.	Smoking normative perceptions assessed at baseline, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks.
Smoking Injunctive Normative Perceptions	Participants will report how much they believe others their age approve (or disapprove) of cigarette smoking using a 5-point Likert scale (responses options: Strongly disapprove to Strongly approve).	Smoking normative perceptions assessed at baseline, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks.
Quitting vaping self-efficacy	Self-efficacy will be assessed by 2 adapted items that originally assessed self-efficacy to quit smoking. Participants rate their confidence about quitting vaping "someday" and "in the next 6 months."	Self-efficacy in the past 7 days assessed at baseline, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks.
Motivation to Quit Vaping	Motivation will be assessed by asking participants whether they were seriously thinking about quitting vaping with responses ranging from 1 = No, I am not thinking about quitting to 5 = Yes, I want to quit during the next 30 days.	Motivation to quit in the past 7 days assessed at baseline, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Southern California
• Collaborators: Tobacco Related Disease Research Program

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Estimated): July 1, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): March 30, 2027
• Study Completion (Estimated): March 30, 2027

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 21, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 31, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): June 3, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): June 3, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 31, 2026
• Last Verified: May 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: mHealth; Tobacco; Nicotine addiction; E-cigarette
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Substance-Related Disorders; Chemically-Induced Disorders; Behavior; Smoking; Tobacco Use Disorder; Vaping
• Other Study ID Numbers: T35IP9813

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: Individual participant data that underlie the results reported in this study, after de-identification, will be shared. The Study Protocol and Statistical Analysis Plan will also be available. Data will be available beginning 9 months and ending 36 months following article publication to researchers who provide a methodologically sound proposal to achieve the aims in the approved proposal. Proposals must be approved by the Principal Investigator. Please submit requests and usage plans to deniset@usc.edu.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Data will be available beginning 9 months and ending 36 months following article publication upon approval.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: De-identified individual participant data will be shared with external researchers who submit a scientifically meritorious research proposal and a comprehensive Statistical Analysis Plan (SAP). Data may be utilized for any secondary analysis or meta-analysis that contributes to public health knowledge. Requests will be evaluated directly by the Principal Investigator. Access is conditional upon the signing of a standard institutional Data Sharing Agreement. Data files will be securely shared via email attachment or secure cloud download.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; SAP; ANALYTIC_CODE

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No