Reasons for Marijuana Use Among Young Adults and Long-Term Associations With Marijuana Use and Problems

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Objective: This study examines reasons for marijuana use among young adults age 19/20 in the United States and the extent to which patterns of reasons are associated with marijuana use and problems 15 years later. Method: The national Monitoring the Future study provided data on marijuana users at age 19/20 who were also surveyed at age 35 (n = 2,288; 50% women; 83% White). Latent class analysis was used to identify distinct patterns of reasons for marijuana use, which were then used as predictors of later marijuana use and problems. Results: Five latent classes described the following patterns of reasons for marijuana use at age 19/20: Experimental, Get High + Relax, Typical, Typical + Escape, and Coping + Drug Use. Highest risk for later marijuana use and problems was found for people with Coping + Drug Use and Get High + Relax reasons in young adulthood; those with Experimental reasons were at lowest risk for later use or problems. Conclusions:Coping and getting high emerged as strong predictors of later marijuana use and problems. Results support the predictive value of self-reported reasons for using marijuana among young adults. (J. Stud.

Marital Status as a Partial Mediator of the Associations Between Young Adult Substance Use and Subsequent Substance Use Disorder: Application of Causal Inference Methods

“…These measures are not a clinical diagnosis but are largely consistent with items of AUD and MUD used in other surveys (e.g., Harford & Muthén, 2001;Muthén, 1996;Muthén et al, 1993;Nelson et al, 1998) and are comparable with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Responses for each substance were trichotomized into (1) abstinence (no use over the last 5 years) (10.0% for alcohol, 76.9% for marijuana), (2) nondisordered use (used over the last 5 years and reported 0-1 problem) (60.0% for alcohol, 17.2% for marijuana), and (3) AUD/MUD (used over the last 5 years and reported ≥2 problems) (30.0% for alcohol, 5.9% for marijuana) (Patrick et al, 2011(Patrick et al, , 2016Schulenberg et al, 2015).…”

Daily Motives for Alcohol and Marijuana Use as Predictors of Simultaneous Use Among Young Adults

“…Previous research has identified that motivesf or alcohol use are associated with drinking behavior both cross-sectionally(e.g., Carey&C orreia, 1997;Merrill &R ead,2 010;Patrick et al, 2011a) and longitudinally( e.g., Merrill et al, 2014;Patrick et al, 2011b;Read et al, 2003). Similarly, motives for marijuana use are associated with use in cross-sectional (e.g., Bonn-Miller et al, 2007;Lee et al, 2009;Simons et al, 1998) and longitudinal (e.g., Patrick et al, 2011bPatrick et al, , 2016 studies. Reasons or motivesfor substance use have also been shown to change with age as individuals develop from adolescence to young adulthood (Patrick &Schulenberg, 2011;Patrick et al, 2011cPatrick et al, , 2017a.…”

Relación entre las motivaciones para consumir y el consumo problemático de cannabis

“…Otros estudios también relacionan el consumo por afrontamiento con mayor consumo problemático de cánnabis en adultos (Bujarski, Norberg, y Copeland, 2012;Johnson, Mullin, Marshall, Bonn-Miller, y Zvolensky, 2010) y destacan el papel modulador que puede tener esta motivación en usuarios con mayor ansiedad y angustia (Ecker y Buckner, 2014). Por lo tanto, la motivación para el consumo no solamente parecería ser un predictor de consumo problemático (Fox et al, 2011;Patrick et al, 2016) Tabla 2. Análisis inferencial de las principales motivaciones expresadas para el consumo de cánnabis (variable dependiente) y las variables cualitativas independientes (características sociodemográficas, patrón de consumo y probabilidad de consumo problemático) sino que podría indicar mayor grado de complejidad en el abordaje del consumo en usuarios de cánnabis concretos (Buckner et al, 2017).…”

“…Estudios recientes han estudiado la relación entre motivaciones concretas con el riesgo de consumo problemático (Buckner, Walukevich, Zvolensky, y Gallagher, 2017;Fox, Towe, Stephens, Walker, y Roffman, 2011;Mezquita et al, 2018;Moitra, Christopher, Anderson, y Stein, 2015) sugiriendo su potencial en el pronóstico del desarrollo del consumo. No obstante, la información sobre la relación entre las motivaciones y el consumo problemático en nuestro contexto se ha centrado en mayor medida en los adolescentes y menos en adultos, con ámbitos de consumo más heterogéneos (Patrick, Bray, y Berglund, 2016). A ello se suma que, aun existiendo evidencia científica que apoye su implicación en los riesgos asociados al consumo de cánnabis, en la actualidad los instrumentos de cribado sistemáticos de consumidores de riesgo y problemático de cánnabis no incluyen la exploración de las motivaciones para el consumo (López-Pelayo, Batalla, Balcells, Colom, y Gual, 2015).…”