{"doi":"10.1093/ntr/ntae095","title":"Development and Psychometric Evaluation of a Novel Measure of Nicotine E-cigarette Withdrawal for Use With Adolescents and Young Adults","abstract":"INTRODUCTION: Nicotine withdrawal is a well-established construct that prompts continued nicotine product use and contributes to failed cessation efforts. Despite ongoing public health concerns about nicotine e-cigarette use in adolescents and young adults (AYAs), no psychometrically sound measure of nicotine e-cigarette withdrawal exists for this population. AIMS AND METHODS: A mixed methods approach comprising a literature review to identify existing nicotine withdrawal items; subject matter expert feedback on existing items and novel item generation; cognitive interviews assessing the measure's instructions, items, and response options; and a large quantitative validation survey (N = 997) was employed to develop the novel retrospective measure of nicotine e-cigarette withdrawal. RESULTS: A 25-item solution comprising four subscales-negative affect, negative physical symptoms, craving, and appetite/food-and an overall withdrawal score was supported. Internal reliability was excellent (mean alpha = 0.91), and scalar measurement invariance was reached for all subgroups tested (eg, sex, age, exclusive e-cigarette use vs. dual tobacco product use, and daily vs. non-daily nicotine vaping). Overall withdrawal and its subscales evidenced concurrent validity with time to first vape in the morning, e-cigarette dependence, and previous vaping cessation attempts, although not each subscale was associated with each outcome. Importantly, cross-sectional incremental validity analyses indicated that retrospective withdrawal accounted for variance in each outcome above and beyond e-cigarette dependence. CONCLUSIONS: The novel retrospective AYA Nicotine E-cigarette Withdrawal Scale (AYA NEWS) evidenced strong psychometric properties for use in this population. Future research can determine whether the AYA NEWS can be used to assess acute e-cigarette nicotine withdrawal. IMPLICATIONS: While e-cigarette use remains the most prevalent form of nicotine product use among AYAs, there are limited options for psychometrically sound measures of e-cigarette-related constructs in this population. Withdrawal from nicotine is associated with failed cessation attempts and continued use of nicotine-containing products, making it a critical construct within tobacco-related research. This study outlines the development and preliminary psychometric evaluation of a novel, retrospective measure of nicotine e-cigarette withdrawal. Study findings support using the Adolescent and Young Adult Nicotine E-cigarette Withdrawal Scale (NEWS) to assess retrospective withdrawal from nicotine e-cigarettes in young people.","journal":"Nicotine & Tobacco Research","year":2024,"id":467914,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":3,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9563,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":712000,"name":"Lavanya Rajeshkumar","orcid":"0000-0002-0659-5207","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1300780,"name":"Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":388135,"name":"Meghan E. Morean","orcid":"0000-0003-4865-1155","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":45,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:05:15.025255Z","pmid":"38695371","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}