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CATEGORY/THEME: Prevention Science and Emerging High-Priority Policy Issues
TITLE: The effects of perceived peer marijuana use on at-risk youth: Perceived peer marijuana use as a moderator of negative urgency’s effect on marijuana use
ABSTRACT BODY:
Introduction: Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug by adolescents, and perceived risks of use have declined while rates of use have increased (Johnston et al., 2013). Negative urgency is the tendency to act impulsively in response to negative emotions, and has been associated with increased marijuana use (Stautz & Cooper, 2014). Perceived peer marijuana use predicts self-reported marijuana use (Salvy et al., 2014), and at-risk youth may disproportionately experience the deleterious effects of normative influences. The purpose of this investigation was to: 1) test the positive association between negative urgency and adolescents’ marijuana use, and 2) test whether this association was moderated by perceived peer use.
Method: Participants were 9th grade students (N = 585, Mage = 14.5, SD= 0.54) from two public high schools participating in a study on adolescent health behaviors. The sample was diverse in regards to ethnicity (50% Hispanic, 23% White, and 27% other) and gender (49% female). Students completed the UPPS-P Negative Urgency Scale (Lynam et al., 2007) in addition to perceived peer marijuana use and past 30-day marijuana use. Zero-inflated negative binomial regression models were estimated to test the hypothesized interaction.
Results: Results indicated 16.6% of students reported using marijuana, and increased rates of perceived peer consumption were associated with 46% greater odds of using marijuana on more than one occasion (p < .001, 95% CI [0.36, 0.59). The results also suggested a one-unit increase in negative urgency was associated with a 3.46 increase in the number of days marijuana was consumed (p < .01, 95% CI [1.48, 8.17]), and each additional peer who used marijuana was associated with a 1.3 increase in the frequency of marijuana use in past 30 days (p = .06, 95% CI [0.98, 1.72]). The interaction term indicated that, for each additional peer who used marijuana, the effect of urgency on marijuana consumption increased by .66 days (p < .001, 95% CI [0.49, 0.90]).
Conclusions: Results confirm previous research demonstrating that negative urgency is associated with greater marijuana use during adolescence. This association was moderated by perceived peer use such that negative urgency was particularly harmful for youth who perceived higher rates of peer use and may have easier access to marijuana. As marijuana policies change, perceptions of marijuana use may reflect high prevalence norms. It is important for prevention scientists to address possible negative consequences of policy changes. Targeting perceptions of marijuana use among adolescents prone to emotion-focused impulsivity as well as teaching thoughtful action in response to high emotional states may ameliorate the effects of fluctuating normative perceptions.