Teachers' experiences of delivering youth vaping prevention materials in schools in England and Scotland: A cross-sectional online survey

TY - JOUR

T1 - Teachers' experiences of delivering youth vaping prevention materials in schools in England and Scotland

T2 - A cross-sectional online survey

AU - Lee, Ashley

AU - Walsh, Hannah

AU - Nottage, Matilda

AU - Fincham-Campbell, Stephanie

AU - Taylor, Eve

AU - Robson, Deborah

AU - Conner, Mark

AU - East, Katherine

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2025 Lee et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

PY - 2025/11/7

Y1 - 2025/11/7

N2 - INTENT is an evidence-based smoking prevention programme for secondary school pupils in Great Britain (GB) that was recently expanded to include vaping information. Little research has evaluated GB-specific youth vaping prevention materials. This study assesses teachers’ experiences of delivering INTENT’s vaping prevention materials in England and Scotland. Teachers who delivered INTENT in England/Scotland (N = 45) were surveyed online in 2024, investigating their i) characteristics, ii) experiences of delivering INTENT, iii) perceived impact of INTENT on their pupils, and iv) perceived levels of smoking and vaping in their school. Teachers frequently reported finding pupils possessing/using vapes (51% at least once a week) and perceiving vaping as a problem (96%) in their school, more than cigarettes (4%, 35%, respectively). Teachers had positive or somewhat positive experiences delivering the INTENT vaping prevention materials (96%), perceived that pupils were engaged either ‘a lot’ or ‘somewhat’ (98%), and felt the materials encouraged pupils to make informed choices about vaping (89%). While most teachers reported a change in vaping harm perceptions after INTENT (82%), misperceptions that vaping is equally/more harmful than smoking remained high (65%). A third of teachers did not perceive a change in pupils’ vaping (35.6%) or smoking (26.7%), or did not know (31.1%, 48.9%, respectively). In conclusion, this study found that INTENT shows potential to improve teachers’ knowledge about vaping and smoking and to challenge vaping harm perceptions, and that experiences with delivery and student engagement were positive. Studies evaluating the impact of INTENT and other school-based interventions on school pupils’ vaping and smoking perceptions and behaviours are required.

AB - INTENT is an evidence-based smoking prevention programme for secondary school pupils in Great Britain (GB) that was recently expanded to include vaping information. Little research has evaluated GB-specific youth vaping prevention materials. This study assesses teachers’ experiences of delivering INTENT’s vaping prevention materials in England and Scotland. Teachers who delivered INTENT in England/Scotland (N = 45) were surveyed online in 2024, investigating their i) characteristics, ii) experiences of delivering INTENT, iii) perceived impact of INTENT on their pupils, and iv) perceived levels of smoking and vaping in their school. Teachers frequently reported finding pupils possessing/using vapes (51% at least once a week) and perceiving vaping as a problem (96%) in their school, more than cigarettes (4%, 35%, respectively). Teachers had positive or somewhat positive experiences delivering the INTENT vaping prevention materials (96%), perceived that pupils were engaged either ‘a lot’ or ‘somewhat’ (98%), and felt the materials encouraged pupils to make informed choices about vaping (89%). While most teachers reported a change in vaping harm perceptions after INTENT (82%), misperceptions that vaping is equally/more harmful than smoking remained high (65%). A third of teachers did not perceive a change in pupils’ vaping (35.6%) or smoking (26.7%), or did not know (31.1%, 48.9%, respectively). In conclusion, this study found that INTENT shows potential to improve teachers’ knowledge about vaping and smoking and to challenge vaping harm perceptions, and that experiences with delivery and student engagement were positive. Studies evaluating the impact of INTENT and other school-based interventions on school pupils’ vaping and smoking perceptions and behaviours are required.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105020976939

U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0335474

DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0335474

M3 - Article

SN - 1932-6203

VL - 20

JO - PLoS One

JF - PLoS One

IS - 11

M1 - e0335474

ER -