Daily associations between cannabis motives and consumption in emerging adults

- We examined daily relationships between cannabis use motives and consumption.
- Higher social motives were positively associated with daily cannabis quantity.
- Higher coping motives were positively associated with daily cannabis quantity.
- Higher enhancement motives were positively associated with daily cannabis quantity.
- Emerging adults' reasons for use are differentially related to daily consumption.

BackgroundIncreasing rates of cannabis use among emerging adults is a growing public health problem. Intensive longitudinal data can provide information on proximal motives for cannabis use, which can inform interventions to reduce use among emerging adults.MethodAs part of a larger longitudinal study, patients aged 18-25 years (N = 95) recruited from an urban Emergency Department completed daily text message assessments of risk behaviors for 28 days, including daily cannabis quantity and motives. Using a mixed effects linear regression model, we examined the relationships between daily quantity of cannabis consumed and motives (i.e., enhancement, social, conformity, coping, and expansion).ResultsParticipants were, on average, 22.0 years old (SD = 2.2); 48.4% were male, 45.3% were African American, and 56.8% received public assistance. Results from the multi-level analysis (clustering day within individual), controlling for gender, race, and receipt of public assistance, indicated daily use of cannabis use for enhancement (β = 0.27), coping (β = 0.15), and/or social motives (β = 0.34) was significantly associated with higher quantities of daily cannabis use; whereas expansion and conformity motives were not.ConclusionsDaily data show that emerging adults who use cannabis for enhancement, social, and coping motives reported using greater quantities of cannabis. Future research should examine more comprehensive cannabis motives (e.g., boredom, social anxiety, sleep) and test tailored interventions focusing on alternative cognitive/behavioral strategies to address cannabis motives.