Abstracts Psychology

The relationship between executive function and cigarette smoking and vaping devices in young adults

by Michelle L Sisson

Electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) devices are battery-powered products that produce a vapor the user inhales. Deficits in executive function have been found to predict conventional cigarette use and recently found to predict electronic cigarette use in adolescents. The purpose of the current study was to extend previous research and examine the association of executive function deficits and ENDS use in young adults, using a more comprehensive measure of ENDS devices. Participants included a convenience sample (<i> n</i> = 522) of young adults from two universities in the Southwestern United States who were surveyed with a self-report measure of executive function, the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF), and a survey that asked about use of various ENDS devices such as cigalikes, electronic hookahs, vape pens, and mods. A series of logistic and linear regressions were conducted to determine whether executive function deficits predicted conventional cigarette use, ENDS use, risk perceptions of ENDS products, susceptibility to ENDS use, and marijuana use in ENDS devices. Executive function deficits predicted conventional cigarette use, harm perceptions of ENDS devices, and susceptibility to ENDS use. However, executive function deficits did not predict ENDS use, perceptions of addictiveness of ENDS devices, or marijuana use in ENDS devices.