Parents of children as young as 10 calling national helpline over vaping concerns

Parentline says some parents are linking vaping to a rise in anxiety among their children.

Worried parents of children as young as 10 are calling the national helpline about vaping.

More parents have called in the past four months about vapes and e-cigarettes than they did in the past year, Parentline said.

It says that of the more than 2,000 calls the charity received from parents between January and April this year, 76 were from parents concerned about their children — some as young as 10 — vaping.

This compares to just 10 in the same period last year.

The rise in calls about e-cigarettes also comes as more parents are also calling for help to deal with their children’s anxiety.

Parentline ceo Aileen Hickie says some parents are even linking the two, and saying they believe vapes, or e-cigarettes, are actually making their anxiety worse.

She said: “Calls about vaping showed up for the first time last year but they have increased markedly this year.

“While we had around 60 calls for the entire year last year, we have already had more than that over a much shorter period. Even that number of calls is just the tip of the iceberg and represents those parents prepared to call for help in how to deal with this issue.

“I don’t doubt there are many, many more parents with their own concerns about vapes. They tell us that they are very concerned about how easy it is for their children to get hold of vapes, and they worry about the short and long term effects on their children.” 

She added: “We are not, as an organisation, saying there is a physical link between vapes and increased anxiety. We are just going on what some parents are saying to us and what they believe is a cause of anxiety in their children.” 

Depression and anxiety

The HSE has warned that e-cigarette use among children has been associated with mental health symptoms such as depression and anxiety.

Other causes for the rise to 256 calls about anxiety in the first third of the year from 129 in the same period last year are mainly about school.

“For the first four months of last year, we had 129 calls on anxiety,” she said.

“So far this year, we've had 256 calls about childhood anxiety.

“Most children experience some form of anxiety at some stage in their lives. But we are taking calls from parents concerned about trigger points for much more overwhelming anxiety.

“It could be anything from starting secondary school, moving from the junior to the senior cycle, or moving to college. We have also found a lot of children are still having issues with assimilating back into school and social groups and this is a hangover from Covid.

“We have parents talking to us about their children not being able to reintegrate back, or having huge difficulties reintegrating.” 

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The biggest reason for calls from parents remains anger and aggression being displayed by a child to their own parents.

While there have been incidents of violence reported, the calls also detail incidents of verbal abuse, bullying, and coercive control behaviour by children against their own parents.

The charity was set up in 1982 as a support group for parents with young children but it has since grown into a national helpline dealing with all parenting issues.

The organisation now has more than 60 volunteers working for it.

Parentline can be contacted 10am-9pm Monday to Thursday and 10am-7pm on Fridays at 01 873 3500.