Adolescent emotional disorder symptoms and transdiagnostic vulnerabilities as predictors of young adult substance use during the COVID-19 pandemic: mediation by substance-related coping behaviors

Substance-related coping behaviours among youth during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic

“…We identified that approximately 12% of secondary school students in our sample reported substance-related coping using at least one of alcohol, cannabis, cigarettes, or vaping which also accounted for between 25-50% of students who used substances more generally. While the prevalence of substance-related coping in our youth sample is lower than what was recently observed within adult samples ( Cho et al, 2021 , MacMillan et al, 2021 ), it remains a concern that a significant portion of youth in Canada were relying on substance use as a strategy for coping with changes brought forth by the pandemic, particularly given the added substance accessibility challenges youth may have face during the early months of the lockdown, compared to adults. We also found that youth with generally poorer mental health – particularly those experiencing greater levels of depressive symptoms – were more likely to engage in substance-related coping.…”

“…Within a sample of adults in Canada and the U.S., 37.5% reported using alcohol or other substances as a source of coping with the COVID-19 pandemic ( MacMillan et al, 2021 ). In another sample of young adults, more than 40% of participants reported using at least one substance to cope with social conditions of COVID-19 ( Cho et al, 2021 ). Youth have also reported relying on general maladaptive strategies to cope with COVID-19 restrictions ( Liang et al, 2020 ), including cannabis use ( Dumas et al, 2020 ); however, no studies have specifically examined substance-related coping behaviours adopted by youth in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Changes in youth mental health, psychological wellbeing, and substance use during the COVID-19 pandemic: A rapid review

“…States reported no significant changes to their use of substances other than alcohol (Charles et al, 2021), increases in both the number of substances used and the frequency of use were found in a longitudinal study of high school students in the United States (Cho et al, 2021) . In qualitative studies in both the United States and Portugal, adolescents reported using alcohol or "other drugs" as a form of escapism during lockdown (Branquinho et al, 2020;O'Brien et al, 2021).…”

The mediating role of personalized psychological flexibility in the association between distress intolerance and psychological distress: A national survey during the fourth waves of COVID‐19 pandemic in Iran

“…Distress intolerance as a transdiagnostic factor (Macatee et al, 2016 ; Patel et al, 2020 ), is considered as an underlying construct in a wide array of psychopathology, including depressive symptoms and worry, major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, hoarding disorder, PTSD symptoms, obsessive–compulsive disorder (e.g., Allan et al, 2014 ; Cho et al, 2021 ; Macatee et al, 2016 ; McGrew et al, 2020 ; Norberg et al, 2020 ; Robinson & Freeston, 2014 ). Distress tolerance is considered a meta‐emotion construct, and a higher‐order construct (Simons & Gaher, 2005 ).…”