A large number of studies claim that the likelihood of risky consumption is higher among rural adolescents, compared to the ones living in urban areas . However, other studies agree with the results obtained in the present survey, which shows a greater consumption of substances in adolescents living in urban settings . As it was already mentioned, maybe cities had more open establishments and people had more options to acquire substances during the lockdown period. Our study is in line with other investigations showing a connection between lower parental education and higher prevalence of consumption . Indeed, we found that adolescents with parents with primary education were more likely to use substances than adolescents with parents with secondary and university education. Alcohol was the most consumed substance before the lockdown, and the one that underwent the greatest reduction during the COVID-19 lockdown period. In the same direction of other studies that identified an association between the socioeconomic status and substance abuse, our findings show that adolescents with a medium or high SEP drank more frequently and with a riskier pattern, in comparison to adolescents with a low SEP, both before and after confinement.
Our data reveal a notable decrease in the prevalence of binge drinking and hazardous drinking during the lockdown period in all groups, objectifying the impact of restrictions and social distancing on adolescents. In agreement with other surveys, we found that younger adolescents drank less alcohol during confifinement. This might be due to the closure of leisure establishments and the suspension of school classes, that prevented social meetings and reduced the opportunities to access psychoactive substances . Furthermore, parental disapproval towards binge drinking could explain the reduction of risky consumption patterns . The hazardous consumption of cannabis showed the lowest prevalence among the different substances before confinement, and its prevalence was even lower during the COVID-19 lockdown period. Under normal conditions, adolescents perceive that accessibility to cannabis is high, even though cannabis is an illegal substance. However, we believe that COVID-19 confinement and the restrictions to mobility and social contact could have increased the obstacles for the illicit trade of the substance, thus reducing its availability and accessibility . Additionally, spending more time with the family, together with parental disagreement on the use of cannabis, could have contributed to diminish its risky consumption.Our results agree with previous studies showing that people with a lower SEP and those who live in urban areas have higher opportunities to consume illicit substances as cannabis.
Indeed, we observed a maintenance in the hazardous consumption of cannabis among people living in disadvantaged neighborhoods. We think that this might be explained by the frequent breaches of the confifinement restrictions and the easy of trafficking and acquisition of the substance in these areas. While some groups decreased their daily consumption , others even increased it . At these ages, we fifind a large part of social smokers, who smoke tobacco in social settings and with the group. The COVID-19 pandemic led to restrictions of social meetings, spending more time with parents at home, and in some cases the information about the worsening of respiratory problems that COVID could generate in smokers increased the health risk awareness , and could explain the observed decrease. Moreover, a family attitude toward the tobacco with parental disapproval towards its consumption at home could have contributed to this reduction. On the contrary,the increased consumption in some groups could be a way to alleviate negative emotions related to COVID-19, beat boredom, and overcome the lack of social relations . Additionally, some parents may have been using tobacco to cope with the situation, making it more accessible to their sons, or maybe being more permissive and allowing them to smoke at home.
The results of this study provide the first data about the effect of COVID-19 confinement on consumption of legal and illicit substances among teenagers from Central Catalonia. The measures of social distancing forced adolescents to spend more time at home with family members, and less in social and leisure environments. This reduced the opportunities of engaging in binge drinking and the consumption of alcohol, cannabis and tobacco. However, in spite of the general tendency to decrease, a higher risky consumption of substances was observed in older adolescents attending advanced courses. We believe that, by reducing risky consumption among teenagers, confifinement could reduce the probability of future related problems. To confirm this hypothesis, further follow up of the cohort is warranted once the pandemic situation has passed and restrictions about mobility and social contacts had been overcome.