Declines in Adolescent Substance Use After the COVID-19 Pandemic Onset: The Role of Initiation in Grades 7 and 9.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

To examine if the record declines in adolescent substance use after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted from reduced levels of initiation, defined as any lifetime use.

Methods

We analyzed data from the nationally representative, cross-sectional, annual Monitoring the Future surveys of eighth, 10th, and 12th grade students from 2019 to 2022. Measures included past 12-month use of cannabis, nicotine vaping, and alcohol as well as self-reported grade of initiation of each substance. Analyses are based on randomly selected subsamples of students who received questions on both prevalence and grade of first use, resulting in a total sample size of 96,990 students.

Results

Levels of the past 12-month substance use were markedly lower after the onset of the pa

SUBMITTER: Miech R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10829022 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature