Adverse childhood experiences and adolescent nicotine and marijuana vaping: Findings from a statewide sample of Florida youth.

Introduction:
This text discusses a study examining the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and adolescent nicotine and marijuana vaping. The study uses data from the 2020 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey (FYSAS) to explore the association between ACEs and four mutually exclusive categories of nicotine and marijuana use. The study also investigates how cumulative ACE exposure is related to use of nicotine and marijuana in different forms, as well as the unique effect of cumulative ACE exposure on being a dual-form user of each substance.

Key Points:

* The study found that greater cumulative exposure to ACEs is associated with an increase in the likelihood of vaping nicotine and marijuana in adolescents.
* Greater cumulative exposure to ACEs is also associated with an increase in the likelihood of using nicotine and marijuana through multiple delivery modes.
* The study controlled for grade level, gender, race/ethnicity, living in an urban environment, and lifetime alcohol use.
* The data used in the study comes from the 2020 FYSAS, a two-stage cluster sample of students attending Florida public high schools.
* The study used 15 items to measure exposure to ACEs, including experiences of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, neglect, family violence, household substance use, household mental illness, parental separation/divorce, and family incarceration.
* Respondents were grouped by the number of ACEs they experienced (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 or more) to examine the cumulative effect of ACEs.
* The study used multinomial logistic regression models to estimate the association between cumulative ACE exposure and the four mutually exclusive categories of nicotine and marijuana use.

Main Message:
The main message of the text is that ACEs are linked with nicotine and marijuana vaping activity in adolescents. The study found that greater cumulative exposure to ACEs is associated with an increase in the likelihood of vaping nicotine and marijuana, as well as an increase in the likelihood of using nicotine and marijuana through multiple delivery modes. These findings highlight the importance of screening for and mitigating the impact of ACEs early in the life course to reduce the risk of substance use in adolescents. Providers and practitioners who regularly interact with children and youth should consider screening for ACEs and referring youth and their families to evidence-based prevention and treatment programs. Programming that fosters family resilience and connection across childhood and adolescence is likely to not only diminish substance use risk among youth facing adversity, but promote flourishing in a variety of life domains. Intervening early with ACE-exposed children can have downstream benefits for adolescent substance use, and may lessen the need to intervene with youth at later life stages through interventions explicitly focused on substance use or recovery from addictive behaviors.

Boccio CM, Meldrum RC, Jackson DB. Adverse childhood experiences and adolescent nicotine and marijuana vaping: Findings from a statewide sample of Florida youth. Preventive medicine. 2022;154:106866. doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2021.106866