Race Differences in Longitudinal Associations Between Adolescent Personal and Peer Marijuana Use and Adulthood Sexually Transmitted Infection Risk

Abstract

To assess whether adolescent marijuana exposure represents a modifiable predictor of risk of sexually transmitted infections as adults, we used nationally representative, longitudinal data from Waves I (1994–1995, adolescence) and III (2001–2002, adulthood) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 10,738) to examine racial and gender differences in associations between adolescent marijuana use, current use, and peer use and adulthood multiple partnerships, self-reported sexually transmitted infections, and biologically confirmed sexually transmitted infections. The risk of sexually transmitted infections as adults was predicted by adolescent marijuana use in all groups except Black women and by peer marijuana use among Black men. Adolescents who use or have friends who use marijuana constitute priority populations for sexually transmitted infection prevention.

KEYWORDS:

• Marijuana
• sexually transmitted infections
• race/ethnicity
• adolescence
• young adulthood

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse grant Longitudinal Study of Substance Use, Incarceration, and STI in the US (Maria Khan, PI, R03 DA026735). This research uses data from Add Health, a program project designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman and Kathleen Mullan Harris, and funded by a grant P01–HD31921 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies.