Study of the Use of JUUL by Stuyvesant Students

Out of a sample of 587 Stuyvesant students, 92 individuals reported having vaped within the past year. Juniors reported the highest rate of vaping, with 34.9 percent of individuals, followed by seniors with 29.3 percent, sophomores at 21.7 percent, and freshmen at 14.1 percent.

Before the release of JUUL’s product, it was almost unheard of for Stuyvesant students to vape. As it stands, 15.7 percent of Stuyvesant students have vaped within the past year, and 24.2 percent have ever done so, compared to 2.6 percent before 2015.

The value one was labeled as “Negative” and the value 10 was labeled as “Positive.” Most students believe that using JUUL products has a negative impact on a person’s health, with responses congregating toward the lower end of the scale.

Again, the value one was labeled as “Negative” and the value 10 was labeled as “Positive.” There was much more of a contrast, though, between the number of those who ranked 1-5 versus 6-10 than in the previous question.

Though values one and 10 had donned the same labels as before, the student body was much more ambivalent toward the impact of using the product on one’s social well-being. This graph displays more of a symmetric curve, with the mode at five and a peak at one.

Interestingly enough, even though the student body was roughly split on the impact of JUUL on one’s popularity, only 5.3 percent of students reported having a preference for those who JUUL when meeting new friends. It should be noted, however, that the question did not make a distinction between apathy about the subject and a preference for those who do not JUUL.

There is a great disparity between how often the student body seeks reliable information concerning the effects of vaping and how informed they believe they truly are. While 64.2 percent of Stuyvesant students ranked themselves at a one or two for how often they seek information, with one being “Seldom” and five being “Frequently,” approximately the same number of students asserted they were well-informed, at 61.7 percent.

Of those who have never used a JUUL device, 8.6 percent reported having the intention of doing so.

Mango was, by far, the most appealing flavor to the students who chose to answer this question, followed by Mint and Fruit, respectively.

Data Collection

The content of the article draws from multiple sources, some of which are in favor of the act of vaping and some of which are against the act of vaping. Four students who use JUUL products were interviewed. Three of these students were interviewed in person and one of them was interviewed online. One teacher was interviewed, as well as Angel Colon, the school’s SPARK coordinator. The results of each of these testimonies are discussed from that person’s stance on the issue. Finally, a survey was posted on all four of the Dear Incoming Class groups on Facebook, and was left at the top of the groups for three days. Then, it was sent to all students via e-mail in order to obtain a sample that was representative of the population. After seven days, 587 individuals responded.The survey was organized into two sections and had 54 questions in total. In the first section, it was required to answer all of the questions. These included yes/no questions, ratings on scales, and checkboxes. The second section had optional questions. The last five questions of the survey could be answered in paragraph form.

Possible Sources of Error

There are a few possible sources of error from the results of the survey. Since many of the answer choices for the required questions were limited in options, the true answers are likely much more nuanced and varied.

For the question, “What is your GPA?” it was not originally specified that answers should be put on a 100-point scale. It was also not specified whether the grade should be reported to the 100th place or rounded to the nearest whole number. I used the values given by the respondents instead of rounding all the values to the nearest whole number.

For the question, “What is your sex?” there was no option for those who are neither male nor female. Additionally, there also might have been some statistical significance in testing whether identifying as non-binary correlates with use of JUUL.

There was a question formatted, “Do you vape currently? (If you have vaped in the past but have not done so in a year, choose ‘No’).” “Vaping currently” meant having vaped within the past year because someone who has only tried vaping once might be likely to come back to it. The longer it has been since a person’s last vape, the less likely they might be to return to the activity.

There was no distinction made between the continuous and once-in-a-lifetime use of traditional cigarettes among either students or their parents.

For the questions, “Would you prefer for a potential romantic partner to use JUUL?” and “Would you prefer for a potential friend to use JUUL?” there were no distinctions made between whether a person was apathetic to the proposition or whether they strongly preferred the friend or partner to not use JUUL. These questions were intended to test whether the use of JUUL products does, in fact, make a person “cool.”

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