PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Adolescent alcohol abuse conveys significant disease burden. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
pandemic has wrought unprecedented changes to adolescents’ daily lives, affecting several domains with well-
establish links to alcohol use (e.g., increased stress and family conflict). However, there is no published data the
course of adolescent drinking across the duration of the pandemic; the specific effects of each pandemic-related
change (e.g., social distancing, remote schooling, parents working from home) on adolescents’ drinking;
risk/resiliency factors exacerbating or buffering against pandemic’s impact on drinking; or the relation of COVID-
19 infection/vaccination among youth and family members to pre-morbid or post-morbid drinking. Thus, we lack
the time-sensitive information necessary to guide an effective public health strategy. We propose to address this
urgent, time-sensitive need using secondary data analysis of the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive DevelopmentSM
Study, a large (N=11,880), longitudinal, nationwide cohort of adolescents spanning 21 study sites across the
United States. Participants had been followed prospectively for a median of 29 months before the beginning of
the pandemic and were well-characterized across multiple assessments of alcohol and drug use, mental/physical
health, and family/community environment. 9,031+ participants and their parents completed up to seven waves
of surveys between May 2020 and May 2021, each measuring teen’s drinking and experiences during the
COVID-19 pandemic. By combining a well-characterized, sociodemographically diverse, nationwide cohort
recruited before the pandemic with serial assessments of that cohort across the first 14 months of the pandemic,
the ABCD Study® has outstanding potential to study adolescent alcohol use during the pandemic. We pursue
four specific aims. Aim 1: Describe adolescent drinking over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic and evaluate
associations of drinking with (a) engagement in public health precautions (e.g., social distancing), (b) changes
in schooling status and format, (c) disruptions to daily routines, (d) emotional health and stress/worry about
COVID-19, (e) family stress/discord, and (f) parents’ drinking. Aim 2: Identify vulnerable groups of adolescents
whose alcohol use has been impacted most severely by the COVID-19 pandemic to inform targeted screening
and support, testing for differences by youth sex/gender/age/race/ethnicity, socioeconomic disadvantage, family
and peer environment, or youth predisposition to early drinking. Aim 3: Evaluate the association of COVID-19
infection in adolescents and their family members with adolescents’ pre-morbid and post-morbid drinking. Aim
4: Determine the impact of youth vaccination on subsequent alcohol use patterns. Research activities are
structured to produce findings rapidly and disseminate them widely, to best support the time-sensitive public
health strategy.
