Observed changes in adolescent substance use related to peer exposure during COVID-19, suggesting targeted prevention strategies are needed.
Less in-school peer exposure during a critical developmental period was associated with reduced substance use initiation and progression. These findings highlight the importance of in-school exposure to peers in adolescent substance use trajectories. Future research should investigate specific mechanisms of peer influence-such as substance availability on campus-to inform targeted prevention and early intervention strategies.
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Simmons et al. (2025) studied this question.
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