Concurrent and long-term effects of early pubertal timing on alcohol, cigarette, and cannabis use from adolescence to adulthood.

Early pubertal timing is a risk factor for substance use during adolescence. Fewer studies investigated whether early pubertal timing continues to predict substance use in late adolescence and adulthood, suggesting that long-term effects of pubertal timing vary across substances and by biological sex. Finally, existing studies on pubertal timing and substance use in adulthood involved predominantly White samples. Thus, this longitudinal study examined the concurrent and long-term effects of pubertal timing on alcohol, cigarette, and cannabis use together with sex differences in predominantly Black youth from the United States.