HABIT REVERSAL TRAINING FOR REDUCING VAPING BEHAVIOR AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
Keywords:
Addiction, Behavioral Intervention, Habits Reversal Training, University Students, VapingAbstract
Vaping has become a universal behavioural problem affecting University students, due to peer pressure, stress and the belief that it is a safer alternative to smoking. This behaviour is dangerous and can lead to addiction to nicotine and to loss of self-control and harmful health effects. The quasi-experimental pre-test post-test control group design was used with 60 participants between the age of 18-25 years who reported regular vaping. The subjects were randomly allocated into experimental and control groups. Participants in the experimental group were treated with 8 weeks of an HRT intervention, competing response development, motivation enhancement, and generalization of skills, and the participants in the control groups were not treated with any intervention. Standardized measures of vaping frequency, craving level, and self-control were used to collect data. Results showed that vaping behaviour and vaping cravings in the experimental groups were significantly lower than the control groups and the self-control of the experimental groups were greater than the control groups. From these findings, it can be concluded that HRT appears to be a successful behavioral intervention to decrease vaping and increase healthy coping strategies in university students.
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