Social Anxiety and Cannabis-Related Impairment: The Synergistic Influences of Peer and Parent Descriptive and Injunctive Normative Perceptions

ABSTRACT

Objectives: Cannabis users, especially socially anxious cannabis users, are influenced by perceptions of other's use. The present study tested whether social anxiety interacted with perceptions about peer and parent beliefs to predict cannabis-related problems. Methods: Participants were 148 (36.5% female, 60.1% non-Hispanic Caucasian) current cannabis users aged 18–36 (M = 21.01, SD = 3.09) who completed measures of perceived descriptive and injunctive norms, social anxiety, and cannabis use behaviors. Hierarchical multiple regressions were employed to investigate the predictive value of the social anxiety X parent injunctive norms X peer norms interaction terms on cannabis use behaviors. Results: Higher social anxiety was associated with more cannabis problems. A three-way interaction emerged between social anxiety, parent injunctive norms, and peer descriptive norms, with respect to cannabis problems. Social anxiety was positively related to more cannabis problems when parent injunctive norms were high (i.e., perceived approval) and peer descriptive norms were low. Results further showed that social anxiety was positively related to more cannabis problems regardless of parent injunctive norms. Conclusions: The present work suggests that it may be important to account for parent influences when addressing normative perceptions among young adult cannabis users. Additional research is needed to determine whether interventions incorporating feedback regarding parent norms impacts cannabis use frequency and problems.

KEYWORDS:

• Social anxiety
• descriptive norms
• injunctive norms
• cannabis
• cannabis problems

Acknowledgment

Dawn W. Foster conducted statistical analyses. Lorra Garey supported manuscript development. Julia D. Buckner oversaw grant management and provided feedback to manuscript drafts. Michael J. Zvolensky supported grant and manuscript conceptualization and provided feedback to manuscript drafts. All authors contributed to and have approved the final manuscript.

Declaration of interest

All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Funding

Funding for this study was provided in part by grants from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (5R21DA029811-02, 1R34DA031937-01A1, K12-DA-000167). NIDA had no further role in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dawn W. Foster

Dawn W. Foster is an Assistant Professor in the Psychiatry Department at Yale University's School of Medicine. Her work focuses on social psychological principles related to substance misuse and addictive behaviors.

Lorra Garey

Lorra Garey is a doctoral candidate at the University of Houston. Her research focuses on understanding health disparities by examining the interplay between substance use and psychological vulnerabilities among underserved and vulnerable populations.

Julia D. Buckner

Julia D. Buckner is an Associate Professor of Psychology and director of the LSU Anxiety and Addictive Behaviors Research Laboratory and Clinic at Louisiana State University. Her work focuses on understanding the nature and treatment of anxiety disorders, with a particular interest in the relations between anxiety and addictive behaviors.

Michael J. Zvolensky

Michael J. Zvolensky is the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Professor and Director of the Anxiety and Health Research Laboratory and Substance Use Treatment Clinic (AHRL-SUTC) at the University of Houston (UH) and a research Professor at MD Anderson Cancer Center at The University of Texas.