Affectively-oriented cognitive pathways to marijuana risk in a multinational sample

READ, JENNIFER P.; BRAVO, ADRIAN J.; SOTELO, MELISA; PILATTI, ANGELINA; MEZQUITA, LAURA; CROSS-CULTURAL ADDICTIONS STUDY TEAM

Conferencia; 7th Annual Collaborative Perspectives on Addiction Conference; 2019

Abstract: Background: Rumination and drinking motives have been shown tomediate the association between depressive symptoms and alcohol outcomesin previous studies. The present study cross-culturally examined whethera similar mediation model could be extended to marijuana. Specifically,we tested distinct rumination facets (problem-focused thoughts,counterfactual thinking, repetitive thoughts, and anticipatory thoughts)and marijuana use motives (social, coping, expansion, conformity,enhancement) as double-mediators of the paths from depressive symptoms tomarijuana outcomes (use and consequences). Method: A comprehensivemediation path model was conducted among college student marijuana users(n=1,175) from five countries (U.S., Argentina, Uruguay, Spain,Netherlands). Multi-group models were tested to determine if the proposedmediational model was invariant across sex and differentcultures/countries. Results: Rumination and marijuana motives mediatedthe associations of depressive symptoms with marijuana outcomes.Specifically, higher depressive symptoms were associated with higherproblem-focused thoughts; which in turn were associated with: a) higherendorsement of coping motives which in turn was associated with highermarijuana use and related consequences and b) lower endorsement ofenhancement motives which in turn was associated with lower marijuana useand related consequences. The multi-group analyses showed that the modelwas invariant across sex and the five countries. Conclusions: The presentresearch supports the existence of a universal (i.e., cross-nationalinvariant) negative affect regulation pathway to marijuana use/misusesimilar to those previously found with alcohol. Additional research isneeded to confirm the role of enhancement motives in the associations ofdepression, rumination and marijuana outcomes.