Pelham WE, Tapert SF, Gonzalez MR, et al. - The onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was associated with decreased alcohol use, increased nicotine use, and prescription drug misuse among young people in their adolescence.

• Between May and August 2020, 7,842 youth (mean age = 12.4 years, range = 10.5–14.6) participated in a three-wave assessment of substance use at 21 study sites across the United States.

• In the 6 months since stay-at-home orders were first issued in US states/counties, past-30-day substance use has remained stable; it is primarily episodic (1–2 days in the past month); and it is typically limited to a single substance.

• Using pretest/posttest and age-period designs, the authors discovered that, in comparison to before the pandemic, fewer youth used alcohol and more youth used nicotine or misused prescription drugs.

• During the pandemic, youth were more likely to use substances if they were stressed by pandemic-related uncertainty, if their family faced financial hardship, if their parents used alcohol or drugs, or if they experienced greater depression or anxiety.

• Neither social distancing nor concern about COVID-19 infection were linked to substance use.

• Several risk factors were more prevalent in older (rather than younger) adolescents.