11 - Prevalence and Motivation for Marijuana Use in Adolescents

Marijuana (MJ) legalization efforts in the US increased marijuana accessibility and use, particularly in adolescents. Studies also show that adolescents use MJ to alleviate anxiety and stress. Questions remain about the extent to which stress drives MJ use and to what other factors adolescents attribute their use.

Objective:

To characterize MJ use in adolescents and evaluate the relationship between use frequency, motivation for use, and stress/anxiety.

Design/Methods:

A convenience sample of adolescents ≥ 13 years old were recruited from a large pediatric practice in Central Brooklyn. Participants completed surveys measuring social support (ISEL-12), anxiety (SCARED), and stress (PSS). Characteristics of MJ use (e.g., frequency and severity) were measured with DFAQ-CU, while motivations for use [(pleasure) enhancement, expansion (of life experiences), social (engagement), coping, and (social) conformity] were measured with the Marijuana Motives Measure (MMM). Fisher Exact Tests were used to compare prevalence of stress and anxiety between patients with and without lifetime history of MJ use, while Independent Samples T-Tests were used to compare scale scores. Pearson correlations and logistic regression were used for bivariate and multivariate analysis, respectively.

Results:

Fifty patients (61.4% female, mean age 16.5+/- 2.6 years, 88% Black) were included. Compared to non-users, MJ users were older (18.0 vs. 16.0 years, p=.018), female (91.7 vs. 50.0%, p=.031), and had higher stress (p< .01). A model including age, gender, and stress significantly predicted lifetime MJ use (p=.004) in 76.2% of subjects, but individual predictors were not significant.

Regarding MJ use characteristics, stress severity was correlated with use frequency (r=0.810, p=.003), days MJ use in past week (r=0.703, p=.016), weekend and weekday use vs. weekend only (r=0.648, p=.031), and fewer hours to use after waking (r=0.742, p=.009). SCARED panic disorder subscore was also correlated with current use frequency (r=0.729, p=.017) and weekend and weekday use vs. weekend only (r=0.713, p=.021). However, when evaluating adolescent-reported reasons for MJ use (MMM), only the social (p< 0.05) and enhancement subscales (p< 0.05) were related to use frequency and severity, not the coping subscale.

Conclusion(s): Although MJ use frequency and severity was strongly related to stress, adolescents reported using it for recreation and self-exploration, not coping. These findings suggest that clinicians must first help adolescents gain insight into their mental health to manage stress and effectively reduce marijuana use.