Spreading rapidly across the United States beginning in the spring of 2020, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic radically disrupted Americans' lives. Previous studies of community-wide disasters suggested people are fairly resilient and identified resources and strategies that promote that resilience. Yet, the COVID-19 pandemic is in some ways unique, with high levels of uncertainty, evolving implications and restrictions, and varied and uneven impacts. How resilient were Americans as the pandemic progressed? What psychosocial resources and coping strategies facilitated adjustment as the country moved into a summer of uneven reopenings and reclosures? Data from a national sample of 674 Americans were gathered at the height of early lockdowns and peaking infections in mid-April, 2020, and again, 5 and 10 weeks later. The study aimed to determine levels and sources of distress and to identify the resources and coping efforts that promoted or impeded resilience. Early levels of distress diminished to some extent over subsequent months while levels of wellbeing were comparable with usual norms, suggesting a largely resilient response. COVID-19-related stress exposure also decreased gradually over time. Older age, higher levels of mindfulness and social support, and meaning focused coping predicted better adjustment, reflecting resilience, while avoidance coping was particularly unhelpful. In models predicting change over time, approach-oriented coping (i.e., active coping, meaning-focused coping, and seeking social support) was minimally predictive of subsequent adjustment. Given the unique and ongoing circumstances presented by COVID-19, specific interventions targeting psychosocial resources and coping identified here may help to promote resilience as the pandemic continues to unfold. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Based on the evidence that emotion regulation difficulties underpin many mental health struggles during adolescence, including substance use disorders (SUDs), we focused on distress tolerance as a particularly salient mechanism of action for bolstering emotion regulation outcomes for adolescents in early SUD recovery. Mindfulness-based interventions are effective in improving distress tolerance through teaching skills to reduce individuals’ perceived stress or feelings of crisis and increasing a sense of agency and self-regulatory efficacy. The aim of the present study was to improve emotion regulation outcomes in the student body of a recovery high school (N = 27) through six weeks of mindfulness intervention content delivered in a small-group format. Thus, we tested feasibility through recruitment and retention rates and examined preliminary efficacy outcomes from two, randomized mindfulness intervention conditions, and used a comparison group of students without an SUD diagnosis (N = 29) sampled from the community. Results indicate significant post-intervention impacts on recovery students’ depression symptomology and on two separate measures of impulsivity (t(22) = 2.358, p < .05; t(20) = 2.358, p < .05; t(17) = 3.979, p < .01, respectively), although no significant differences between intervention condition were noted. Findings from the current study echo similar studies with comparable samples. Implications for the dosage and approach of group-format mindfulness interventions for adolescent samples are discussed.

Adherence to and retention in Medication Treatment for Opioid Use Disorders (MOUD) persist. We systematically reviewed trends of USA MOUD adherence, retention, and barriers from 2011–2021. Primary outcomes were adherence to and retention in MOUD, abstinence, adverse events, and treatment barriers. Effects of inverse variance random meta-analyses were examined using proportions and 95% CIs. 28 studies (102,318 patients), 78.1% male. Adherence was 56% across all studies, highest for methadone (73%). Retention by study design was heterogeneous: case series (57%), cohorts (47%), and RCTs (70%). The most common barriers were younger age, comorbid diagnoses, daily attendance, no insurance, and transportation. Abstinence was 72%, and adverse events was 5%. There was high heterogeneity in MOUD across drug types and study designs. Our findings extend the knowledge base of MOUD treatment to describe barriers that underpin the focus on retention in care above adherence given its focus to harm reduction principles.

A systematic review explored the creation and maintenance of community coalitions as effective for alcohol and other drug (AOD) prevention in adolescence. Community coalitions influence the implementation of effective and sustainable community-based prevention via infrastructure supporting development, delivery, and assessment of human service issues. For this review, 1,435 articles were identified, most including insufficient detail on the purposes and activities of coalitions or focus on adolescents. Of the 16 studies included, few discussed comprehensive frameworks describing coalition formation and maintenance or measureable influences on adolescent AOD prevention outcomes. Therefore, we propose four organizing principles for building sustainable community coalitions for adolescent AOD prevention.