Our finding of increased nicotine use was in contrast to previous studies reporting reductions among older youth and among active e-cigarette users [12,13]. Far fewer youth use nicotine at the ages represented in our sample [13], so our discrepant finding may reflect differential impact of the pandemic among the more selected subset of early adolescents who use nicotine. Perhaps youth were more likely to engage in nicotine use (vs. alcohol) because it is easier to hide from parents when home together (particularly via a discreet method such as vaping).
