Purpose: This study aimde to comprehensively analyze the ecological factors influencing e-cigarette susceptibility among middle school students using an ecological model. Methods: This study employed a predictive correlational design. A survey was con...
Purpose: This study aimde to comprehensively analyze the ecological factors influencing e-cigarette susceptibility among middle school students using an ecological model. Methods: This study employed a predictive correlational design. A survey was conducted among 744 middle school students residing in Jeonbuk State, Republic of Korea, in 2025. It comprehensively examined the effects of the factors at Individual, Microsystem, and Exosystem levels. Variables representing these factors were entered sequentially, and a hierarchical binary logistic regression analysis was performed. Results: The analysis indicated that, in the final model, being male compared to being female (OR=2.36, 95% CI=1.55–3.60), having experience with alcohol use (OR=2.12, 95% CI=1.33–3.39), having perceptions of e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation aid (OR=2.66, 95% CI =1.69–4.20), as well as parental monitoring (OR=0.79, 95% CI=0.61–0.99), and exposure to e-cigarettes through online media (OR=1.66, 95% CI =1.29–2.13) and retail stores (OR=2.28, 95% CI=1.47–3.52) had significant effects on e-cigarette susceptibility. The explanatory power and predictive performance of the model increased sequentially across the steps. Conclusion: This study confirms that e-cigarette susceptibility among middle school students is formed within an ecological model in which Individual, Microsystem, and Exosystem factors interact. These findings suggest that adolescent e-cigarette use prevention policies and intervention strategies should move beyond an individual-centered approach and incorporate multidimensional environmental factors.