• Eunhee Park, Jennifer A Livingston, Weijun Wang, Misol Kwon, Rina D Eiden, and Yu-Ping Chang.
• University at Buffalo, School of Nursing, 3435 Main St. University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, 14214-8013, United States. Electronic address: eunheepa@buffalo.edu.
• Addict Behav. 2020 Apr 1; 103: 106213.

IntroductionAs electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use has become more prevalent among adolescents, there is a growing body of evidence linking e-cigarette use to the initiation of other substances. Whether there is a threshold level of e-cigarette use that is predictive of other substance use is unknown. The current study examines patterns of e-cigarette use over time and determines whether different patterns of early adolescent e-cigarette use are concurrently and prospectively associated with alcohol and marijuana use in late adolescence.MethodEight hundred and one adolescents (13-15 years old at baseline recruitment) completed five on-line surveys over a two-year period. Latent class growth analysis was used to model different developmental courses of e-cigarette, alcohol (drinking to intoxication), and marijuana use. Logistic regression was used to test the association between e-cigarette use trajectory patterns and alcohol and marijuana use trajectories.ResultsThree developmental courses of e-cigarette use were identified: 1) high and increasing, 2) low and increasing, and 3) never. Compared to adolescents who had never used e-cigarettes, those in the other two groups were more likely to have been intoxicated and to be in the moderate and increasing marijuana use group.ConclusionBoth high and low levels of e-cigarette use patterns are associated with increasing use of other substances (alcohol and marijuana use) over time. Findings highlight the need for early intervention and prevention of e-cigarette use among adolescents.Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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