Calgary youth said they’d be more inclined to lean on peers for help to quit the vaping habit, according to recent survey results.

Youth Central, in partnership with the Mayor’s Youth Council, asked 168 Calgary youth aged 12 to 21 for their opinion on vaping and presented those results on June 13.

While vaping had trended down nationally from surveys done in 2019, the use of vaping products has jumped considerably, particularly among the 20 to 24 age group, according to Statistics Canada.

According to 2022 national data from the Canadian Community Health Survey, six per cent of people aged 15 and up said they’d vaped in the last 30 days. Broken down by demographic, 14 per cent of youth aged 15 to 19 said they’d vaped, while 18 per cent of people aged 20 to 24 indicated the same. Only four per cent of Canadians over 25 said they’d vaped in the last 30 days.

The Mayor’s Youth Council questionnaire asked youth about their personal experience of being around vaping or actively using the product. There were three primary findings highlighted in the results.

As the vape itself is quite small and convenient for usage, the start age of those who vape is quite young.

“So, our first finding was that nearly half of those who vape have done so before the age of 14, more specifically 48 per cent,” said Grade 12 student Mandi Jin, who is a member of the Mayor’s Youth Council.

Vaping has become an outlet for those who are struggling with mental health, the Youth Council results also showed.

“Thirty per cent of those who vape use it as a coping mechanism for various mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety, and stress, which are very prevalent among youth in our society today,” said Jin.

That’s in line with the same 2022 national community health study, which showed that between 31 and 33 per cent of Canadian youth between 15 and 24 vaped to reduce stress.

Peer support is key to kicking the vaping habit

The Youth Council also found that those addicted to vaping shared how crucial a supportive recovery group is to help them quit.

“We found that when asked what they would do to quit vaping, youth more specifically, 51.6 per cent of youth said that they would turn to a friend or a peer that they would trust,” said Jin. 

As identifying the root causes and risks of vaping is an important aspect of the story, there is the latter half of quitting vaping altogether. Over half of the youth interviewed said that they would prefer speaking to another youth about their struggles with addiction according to the study. 

Having an increase in education regarding the risks of vaping was shared as another crucial way to reduce the number of youths that vape.

“Curiosity was a driving force in vape usage and the best way to decrease curiosity is early education,” said Grade 10 student Missemhar Ermias, who is also a Mayor’s Youth Council member.

Mayor Jyoti Gondek said it was important for the Youth Council’s work to be heard and incorporated into future programs. She’s looking forward to helping the team make certain programs a reality.

“I think a lot of times we make decisions as adults, and we create programs and processes that we think are going to help youth and we haven’t engaged them,” the mayor said.

“I think this is a really important reminder to all of us that if it is about youth, it has to involve youth.”