Little is known, however, regarding racial differences in year-to-year continuity of alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use during adolescence, particularly among females, who are at greater risk for c

The gap

Consensus across the literature

Supporting evidence — 3 representative gaps

• Adolescent polysubstance use and psychopathology: a population-based survey in schools (2026) · doi

  A key strength of this study is the large sample size and school response rate, allowing the exploration of mental health and substance use during adolescence. This study furthers the current understanding of substance use behaviours, including cannabis, bridging gaps in polysubstance use and gender minorities research (Goodwin et al. 2022; Steinfeld and Torregrossa 2023). Furthermore, the manner in which substance use was explored through our exposure variables (i.e., cumulative and specific combinations), allowed for valuable evidence into realistic polysubstance use as highlighted by previous evidence (Bunting et al. 2024; Steinfeld and Torregrossa 2023). An important limitation is due to the cross-sectional nature of this data, causality cannot be established, and temporal direction- ality of polysubstance use and psychopathology is restricted. As vaping was included and combined with cigarettes under the term nicotine, the exact substance vaped is unknown. Substance use data limited extends further to quantity, reliable frequency, and importantly potency. Given how the data is collected, information https://doi.org/10.1017/ipm.2026.10197 Published online by Cambridge University Press 8 Ronan Fleury et al. there is the potential related to individuals who did not take part in the study was not made available. Therefore, these individuals may have sociodemo- graphically differed. However, participation rates were very high, giving confidence that the sample was representative. Due to the school-based study design, for biased reporting of mental health concerns and substance use i.e., peer pressure. However, the anonymity of the survey is likely to have this. While gender × polysubstance use mitigated against interaction terms were examined, small cell sizes across several gender and polysubstance use categories limited statistical power to detect moderation effects. However, in order to address, we conducted exploratory gender-stratified models, which provided complementary insights.

  Keywords: substance polysubstance gender sample school mental health steinfeld torregrossa evidence limited individuals strength large size
• Urbanity, Rurality, and Adolescent Substance Use (2006) · doi

  An important but understudied aspect of substance use research is its relationship to characteristics of the community, including if there are differences in the association between peer and family factors with use between youth living in rural and urban areas.

  Keywords: important understudied aspect substance relationship characteristics community including there differences association peer family factors youth
• White and black adolescent females differ in profiles and longitudinal patterns of alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use. (2013) · doi

  Little is known, however, regarding racial differences in year-to-year continuity of alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use during adolescence, particularly among females, who are at greater risk for certain substance-related harm than males.

  Keywords: year little known regarding racial differences continuity alcohol cigarette marijuana adolescence particularly among females greater