Changes in Youth’s Substance Use during the COVID-19 Pandemic

• In Event: Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Topic - Solicited Content: COVID-19 Related

Abstract

Precautions associated with mitigating the spread of COVID-19 disrupted patterns of daily life in the Spring of 2020. Across the U.S., many children were affected by school closures with major implications for youth’s mental health and well-being (Golberstein et al., 2020). Indeed, early work highlights that anxiety increased among children (Duan et al., 2020) and young adults (Shanahan et al., 2020) during this period. The present study builds on this work by examining changes in youth’s substance use behaviors from before to during the pandemic.

On the one hand, social factors associated with youth’s substance use (Gerrard et al., 2008; Kuntsch et al., 2005) may have been disrupted during the pandemic. If school closures and stay-at-home orders reduced youth’s contacts with friends, social opportunities to consume with friends would likewise decrease. School closures may also have disrupted network-based distribution of substances among adolescents. Further, if home confinements increased parental involvement and monitoring, factors negatively associated with adolescents’ substance use (Abar et al., 2014; Fletcher et al., 2004), opportunities would also decline.

On the other hand, pandemic-related changes might promote substance use among youth. Indeed, closures of institutions and activities (e.g., school, athletic teams) may have left teens bored and isolated, factors associated with substance use experimentation (Sharp et al., 2011; Wegner & Flisher, 2009). Reduced structure of time in the absence of classes and school-related activities may also facilitate substance use for some youth (Hoeben & Weerman, 2016). Further, to the extent that the pandemic promoted stress and anxiety among both parents and youth, it is possible that substances could be used as coping mechanisms (Kuntsch et al., 2005) as well as indirectly increase youth’s use through lower quality parenting (Racz & McMahon, 2011).

Participants included one parent and two adolescent-aged children from 471 families (1,413 participants) from an ongoing longitudinal study. Annual survey data for Time 1 of this study were collected between March 2019 and March 2020 and a special assessment of individual and family experiences during the pandemic was conducted between May 1, 2020 and June 15, 2020. At Time 1, older siblings (51% female) averaged 15.67 (SD=.68) years old, younger siblings (48% female) averaged 13.14 (SD=1.11) years, and parents (85% mothers) averaged 45.15 (SD=5.37) years. At Time 1, youth self-reported their alcohol, marijuana, and e-cigarette use in the past 12 months; during the special assessment, they self-reported these substance use behaviors since March, 2020.

Results are summarized in Table 1. A series of McNemar tests revealed that significantly more younger siblings drank alcohol since the start of the pandemic compared to before; the number of older siblings’ drinking alcohol did not change. Significantly fewer older siblings used marijuana during the pandemic compared to before; the number of younger was low at both time points and did not change. Finally, significantly fewer older and younger siblings reported using e-cigarettes during the pandemic. Additional analyses and discussion will focus on the factors associated with changes in youth’s substance use from before to during the pandemic.

Authors

• Shawn D Whiteman, Utah State University
  Presenting Author

• Jenna Cassinat, Utah State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jennifer L Maggs, Pennsylvania State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Brian C Kelly, Purdue University, West Lafayette
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sarah Mustillo, University of Nortre Dame
  Non-Presenting Author