Investigating E-Cigarette Use Factors Affecting Academic Performance and Gen Z Health Through Data Analytics

The proliferation of e-cigarettes among Generation Z in Indonesia, mirroring a global trend, presents significant public health and academic concerns, yet the specific psychosocial factors influencing this demographic remain under-researched within the national context. This study provides novel insight by investigating how academic motivation, perceived stress, social environment, and lifestyle affect academic performance and health risk behaviors among Indonesian youth. A quantitative, cross-sectional design was employed, analyzing survey data from 134 university-aged Gen Z e-cigarette users through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to comprehensively test the proposed hypotheses. The results revealed that academic motivation had a significant positive effect on academic performance (β=0.500), and lifestyle significantly predicted both academic performance (β=0.337) and health risk behavior (β=0.574). Perceived stress was also found to have a significant positive effect on health risk behavior (β=0.312). However, the analysis did not support the hypotheses linking social environment to either academic performance or health risk behavior. Notably, the lack of significance for social factors suggests that for this cohort, internal drivers like motivation and personal lifestyle may outweigh peer influence, a finding that highlights the complexity of these behaviors. In conclusion, this research empirically validates that lifestyle and academic motivation are critical determinants of academic and health outcomes related to e-cigarette use among Indonesian Gen Z. These findings strongly suggest that interventions should focus not only on health warnings but also on promoting positive lifestyles and strengthening academic engagement, providing a data-driven foundation for developing nuanced policies to mitigate the adverse effects of vaping on the nation’s youth.