Emotional Psychopathology and Coping Cannabis Use Motives Are Involved in the Link Between Anxiety Sensitivity and Adverse Cannabis-Related Outcomes in Canadian Emerging Adults

Abstract

Background: Cannabis use and related problems are prevalent among Canadian emerging adults. Investigating risk factors for cannabis use and related problems, such as personality traits, is important for earlier risk mitigation in this vulnerable population. Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is associated with adverse cannabis outcomes in emerging adults, though the mechanisms driving this effect remain unclear. Theory linking AS to cannabis use and related problems through emotional (i.e., anxiety and/or depression) symptoms and negative reinforcement motivations for use (i.e., coping and conformity) required testing. Methods: N=481 undergraduates completed online self-report measures. A chained indirect effects path analysis model was run with AS specified as the independent variable, cannabis-related problems and cannabis use frequency as correlated dependent variables, and emotional psychopathology and cannabis use motives as intermediate variables; bias-corrected bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals tested the presence/magnitude of indirect effects. Results: Consistent with hypotheses, AS was indirectly associated with both cannabis use frequency and cannabis-related problems through emotional psychopathology and, in turn, coping motives for cannabis use, with no evidence of a remaining direct pathway. Contrary to hypotheses, no indirect effects through conformity motives were observed. Conclusions: Results suggest that emerging adults higher in AS are at increased risk for more frequent and problematic cannabis use due to their increased propensity to use cannabis to cope with anxiety and/or depression, implicating both emotional symptoms and coping motives as potential targets for personality-matched cannabis use risk mitigation efforts.