Vaping in a Pacific Island Context: Social Networks, Informal Access, Regulatory Visibility, and Adolescent Initiation Among Young Adults in Samoa

Abstract

Ralphen Viane, Mohammad Alamgir, Safaatoa Fereti, Katharina Blattner and Patelisio Naa Patelisio

Background: Qualitative evidence on adolescent vaping in Pacific Island settings remains limited. This study explored how social networks, informal access, risk perceptions, cessation experiences, and regulatory visibility shaped e-cigarette use among young adults in Samoa who first experimented during adolescence. Methods: A qualitative descriptive study was conducted with 30 current and former e-cigarette users aged ≥18 years who first used e-cigarettes at 12–17 years. Participants were recruited from the National University of Samoa and The University of the South Pacific, Samoa Campus. Semi-structured interviews were transcribed, de-identified, manually coded, and analysed thematically. Results: Participants had a mean age of 21.7 years (SD=2.3), and mean age at initiation was 15.6 years (SD=1.4). Sixteen were current users and 14 were former users. Vaping emerged through an interconnected pathway: social networks enabled exposure, sharing, access, and reinforcement; perceptions of reduced harm, flavours, and repeated visibility normalised experimentation; continued use was sustained by accessibility, peer settings, enjoyment, stress, and habit; and cessation was linked to health concerns, cost, family influence, changing social environments, and personal motivation. Limited awareness of regulation coexisted with informal and digitally mediated access through friends, acquaintances, online sellers, and local delivery.

Conclusion: In this tertiary-student sample, adolescent vaping was socially embedded and shaped by overlapping processes of exposure, access, normalisation, continuation or cessation, and regulatory visibility. Youth-focused responses in Samoa should integrate prevention, cessation, surveillance, and tobacco-control implementation, with attention to peer and family networks, informal and digital supply pathways, perceived risk, and clearer regulatory communication.

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