Vaping, Acculturation and Social Media Use among Mexican American College Students: Web-based Protocol for Project VAMoS (Preprint)

BACKGROUND The tobacco industry has a history of targeting minority communities, including Hispanics, through social media where vaping is effectively promoted. This marketing increases the risk of vaping among Hispanic young adults, including college students. In Texas, college enrollment among Hispanic high school graduates, primarily Mexican Americans, has significantly increased over recent years. However, there is little research on the link between social media and vaping, and the underlying mechanisms/mediators (i.e., outcome expectations, attitudes/beliefs) that explain how vaping-related social media impacts vaping use among Mexican American colleges. Moreover, there is limited knowledge about how acculturation moderates the association between social media and vaping. With Hispanics, particularly Mexican Americans, becoming the largest ethnic group in Texas colleges, it is crucial to understand the impact of social media and acculturation on their vaping use. OBJECTIVE This paper outlines the protocol for the mixed methods used in Project VAMoS, a multi-wave study examining social media and e-cigarette use among Mexican American college students. This paper presents descriptive analyses of the participants enrolled in the study, focuses on methodological strengths, and discusses lessons learned during the implementation of the study protocol related to recruitment, data collection, and management. METHODS Project VAMoS is conducted with Mexican American students attending one of six Texas-based colleges: University of Texas (UT) Arlington, UT Dallas, UT El Paso, UT Rio Grande Valley, UT San Antonio, or University of Houston System. This project is conducted in two phases. Phase 1 includes an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study and qualitative one-on-one interviews (Years 1–2), and Phase 2 includes cognitive interviews and a five-wave, web-based survey study (Years 2-5) with innovative objective assessments of vaping-related social media marketing/messages to which participants are exposed. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize characteristics of participants in the EMA study and web-based survey. RESULTS The EMA analytic sample comprised 51 participants who were primarily female (72.5%), born in the United States (U.S.; 94.1%), of middle socio-economic status (SES; 74.5 %), and 21 years old on average. The web-based survey cohort comprised 1,492 participants self-identified as Mexican American, Tejano/a/x, or Chicano/a/x heritage, who are primarily female (69.8%), born in the U.S. (91.6%), of middle SES (78.8%), and were on average 20 years old at baseline. CONCLUSIONS The VAMoS project is one of the first longitudinal mixed-method research studies exploring the impact of social media and acculturation on vaping behaviors, specifically targeting Mexican American college students. Its innovative approach to objectively measuring social media exposure and engagement related to vaping enhances the validity of self-reported data beyond what national surveys can achieve. The results can be used to develop evidence-based, culturally relevant interventions to prevent vaping among this rapidly growing vulnerable minority population.