Exploring Relationships among Negative Urgency, Marijuana Use Mechanisms, and Marijuana Use Behaviors across Men and Women
Abstract
Marijuana use is associated with many health risks, but is increasingly becoming more accepted; thus, use rates, as well as negative consequences, are growing. There is a need to better understand marijuana use behaviors so as to reduce its negative effects. The current study sought to test the viability of applying urgency theory to marijuana use behaviors by examining several pathways among negative urgency, marijuana-related attentional bias, coping motives, and marijuana use behaviors, across men and women. Participants (n=120, mean age= 26.61 years (SD=9.28), 50% women, 63% White/Caucasian) were recruited from the Indianapolis, IN area to participate in a cross-sectional study in which they completed self-report measures and a visual-probe computer task with eye-tracking following negative mood induction. Regression analyses and the PROCESS macro were used to examine study hypotheses. Several pathways were supported: Negative urgency was significantly associated with coping motives (β=0.24, p=0.01), coping motives were significantly associated with marijuana use behaviors (ΔR 2= 0.55, p<0.01), and a serial mediation model was supported, in which the relationship between negative urgency and negative marijuana consequences was mediated by coping motives and then by marijuana use frequency (c’= 0.20, 95%CI= 0.06 to 0.50). Competing models were examined and not supported. There were no statistically significant pathways involving the attentional bias measures; although there was a pattern of small effect sizes demonstrating that attentional biases may relate to marijuana use behaviors in men and not in women. Findings from the current study serve as preliminary support for applying urgency theory to marijuana use behaviors. Overall, these findings suggest that negative urgency is a distal risk factor that influences the development of other, more proximal, predictors of marijuana use and negative marijuana consequences. Future studies should examine the time order of these relationships longitudinally to replicate and provide more confidence in the causal order of the model supported in the present study.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Cyders, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Clinical psychology
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