ArticleThe Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine2021
Early Adolescent Substance Use Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Survey in the ABCD Study Cohort.
Article in The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 49 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
49 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Substance Use Among Youth During the COVID-19 Pandemic: a Systematic Review.Current psychiatry reports · 2022Pooled it
- The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Smoking Consumption: A Systematic Review of Longitudinal Studies.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Examining engagement with and acceptability and usability of REAL Parenting: A brief online parent-based intervention to reduce alcohol use and consequences among high school students.Addictive behaviors · 2023Trial
- From school climate to brain development: What the ABCD study reveals about the educational context of adolescence.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Review
- Contributions of genetic liability and the COVID-19 pandemic to rising psychopathology among youth in the United States.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Adolescent Cannabis Use After Cannabis Legalization and the COVID-19 Pandemic.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Investigating Substance Use as a Coping Strategy Among Adolescent Psychiatric Inpatients: A Comparative Analysis Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Child psychiatry and human development · 2026Article
- Child Wellbeing during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Multi-cohort Comparison and a Multi-informant Genetic Study.Behavior genetics · 2025Article
- Impact of substance use disorders on critical care management and health outcomes in septic adolescents.Annals of intensive care · 2025Article
- Longitudinal analysis of the ABCD® study.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2025Review
- Associations Between U.S. High-School Student and Parental Job Loss During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Student Substance Use: Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey (ABES), 2021.Substance use & misuse · 2025Article
- Depression and anxiety mediate the relationship between COVID-19 stay-at-home orders and tobacco and marijuana use.PloS one · 2025Article
- Observational
- Associations between COVID-19 impact and subsequent substance use in adolescents with chronic pain.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- On the rise or a return to pre-pandemic levels? A cross-sectional online survey on nicotine, alcohol, and illicit drug use among youth.Neuropsychiatrie : Klinik, Diagnostik, Therapie und Rehabilitation : Organ der Gesellschaft Osterreichischer Nervenarzte und Psychiater · 2024Article
- Prospective changes in drinking during the COVID-19 pandemic among adults with unhealthy alcohol use.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2024Article
- Suicide Risk Factors in High School Students.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Greater social jetlag predicts poorer NIH Toolbox crystallized cognitive and academic performance in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study.Chronobiology international · 2024Article
- "An escape from the isolation": Youth thoughts about the impact of COVID-19 on adolescent sexual behavior and alcohol use.Journal of adolescence · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
20 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeEvaluate changes in early adolescent substance use during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic using a prospective, longitudinal, nationwide cohort.
methodsParticipants were enrolled in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. A total of 7,842 youth (mean age = 12.4 years, range = 10.5-14.6) at 21 study sites across the U.S. completed a three-wave assessment of substance use between May and August 2020. Youth reported whether they had used alcohol, nicotine, cannabis, or other substances in the past 30 days. Data were linked to prepandemic surveys that the same youth had completed in the years 2018-2020, before the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic.
resultsPast-30-day substance use remained stable in the 6 months since stay-at-home orders were first issued in U.S. states/counties; was primarily episodic (1-2 days in the past month); and was typically limited to a single substance. Using pretest/posttest and age-period designs, we found that compared to before the pandemic, fewer youth were using alcohol and more youth were using nicotine or misusing prescription drugs. During the pandemic, youth were more likely to use substances when they were more stressed by pandemic-related uncertainty; their family experienced material hardship; their parents used alcohol or drugs; or they experienced greater depression or anxiety. Neither engagement in social distancing nor worry about COVID-19 infection was associated with substance use. Several risk factors were stronger among older (vs. younger) adolescents.
conclusionsAmong youth in early adolescence, advent of the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with decreased use of alcohol and increased use of nicotine and misuse of prescription drugs.
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