Vaping negatively affects teens’ academics, mental health: study

(NewsNation) — Over 2 million high school students have reported that they currently use e-cigarettes, and now, new data shows vaping is connected to decreased student engagement and heightened feelings of depression.

Verkada’s “Teen Vaping Survey,” published this month, showed a 20% increase in vaping in the 2022-2023 academic school year compared to the year before. About 84% of teachers, and 82% of students, say they also believe there’s been an increase in teen vaping over the past two years.

To conduct this study, Verkada, a California-based company that develops building security and operating systems, collaborated with Harris Poll to survey 2,650 parents, teachers and both vaping and non-vaping teens. “Aggregated insights” from over 20,000 U.S. vape-detecting devices, which were deployed by Verkada customers, gave additional information about what’s actually happening on school campuses.

Of those who do vape, about 52% are more likely to feel negative about their physical health and two times as likely to feel depressed, Verkada found. Their teachers are noticing: About half of them say their students are struggling to stay motivated and focused, while nine in 10 educators agree that vaping in schools disrupts the learning environment. About 37% of teachers say they noticed worsened academic performance in kids who vape.

It’s especially an issue during times of academic and personal stress for students, with schools saying that vaping trends up at the start of the year, during final exams and SATs as well as when college admissions decisions come out.

“The post-pandemic resurgence of teen vaping has made the already difficult job of educating middle school and high school students even more challenging,” Brandon Davito, senior vice president of product and operations at Verkada, said in a statement. “Teachers and school administrators have the best visibility into the impact of vaping on teens, and they are rightly concerned. The findings from this study reinforce what we are hearing from school staff across the country and issue an urgent warning for all parents, administrators, and teens to take action.”

Verkada’s findings align with what federal officials report: The Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say more than a quarter, or 27.6%, of current youth use an e-cigarette product daily. In 2022, about 1 in 10 middle and high school students in the U.S. said they used a vape in the past 30 days when asked.

According to the FDA and CDC’s findings, flavored e-cigarettes are overwhelmingly popular, especially fruit flavors.