Adolescent Substance Use Continues to Rise Through Mid-Teens, National Study Finds

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• Lizelda Lopez - [email protected]

Topics covered:

• Substance use
• Adolescents
• Alcohol
• Cannabis
• Nicotine

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Article Content

As substance use continues to be a major public health concern among adolescents, researchers from University of California San Diego analyzed the latest data from one of the nation's largest longitudinal studies of youth to better understand when substance use begins, how it changes during adolescence and which substances are most commonly used together.

The study examined substance use among 11,880 participants in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, which has followed children across the United States since ages 9 and 10. UC San Diego is the national coordinating center for the ABCD study, providing the organizational framework for this national multi-site consortium.

Using data collected through annual and mid-year assessments between 2016 and early 2024, researchers found that substance use increased steadily with age. By age 16, 38% of participants reported having used at least one substance during their lifetime. Alcohol, cannabis and nicotine were the most commonly reported substances, while use of other substances remained substantially lower.

The researchers also found notable differences between boys and girls:

• Boys reported higher rates of substance use before age 12.
• However, beginning around age 13, girls reported higher rates of alcohol, cannabis and nicotine use, with the largest differences observed for nicotine.
• At age 14, for example:
  • 11.3% of girls reported nicotine use compared with 8% of boys;
  • 8.8% reported cannabis use compared with 7% of boys;
  • 8.3% reported alcohol use compared with 6.5% of boys.

These patterns also extended to polysubstance use. Nearly 15% of participants reported using two or more substances during the study, and the most common combination was nicotine and cannabis. Girls also reported higher rates of polysubstance use after age 13, particularly combinations involving nicotine.

The findings also showed that prevalence estimates adjusted using census-based weighting closely matched the study's unadjusted results, suggesting the ABCD cohort closely reflects national patterns of adolescent substance use. The researchers say these updated estimates provide an important benchmark for scientists studying how substance use emerges during adolescence and how it may affect brain development, mental health and other long-term health outcomes.

The study (Substance Use Patterns from Late Childhood to Mid-Adolescence: Updates on the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study), led by Ryan Sullivan, PhD, postdoctoral research fellow at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, published on July 23, 2026 in Drug and Alcohol Dependence Reports.

Funding for this study was provided by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)'s National Institute on Drug Abuse, under award numbers DA064409, DA062011, DA050779, DA054980, DA062432. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.

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