Dr. Alexander Sokolovsky published a new paper in Addictive Behaviors examining the impacts of COVID-19 related campus closures on the tobacco use of college students. The manuscript was also co-authored by Drs. Lauren Micalizzi and Kristina Jackson, Project Director Kerri Hayes, and others.

The paper titled, "Preliminary impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on smoking and vaping in college students" found that COVID-19 related campus closures were associated with reduced tobacco use frequency that did not correspond to reduced quantity. In specific, one quarter of college students who smoked or vaped paused in response to COVID-19, which was associated with lower anxiety and moving to non-independent housing. Both active news seeking and passive news exposure decreased odds of pausing smoking, highlighting the important influence of media on substance use.