Period and Cohort Changes in Americans’ Support for Marijuana Legalization: Convergence and Divergence across Social Groups

ABSTRACT

We cast fresh light on how and why Americans’ views on marijuana legalization shifted between 1973 and 2014. Results from age-period-cohort models show a strong negative effect of age and relatively high levels of support for legalization among baby boom cohorts. Despite the baby boom effect, the large increase in support for marijuana legalization is predominantly a broad, period-based change in the population. Additional analyses demonstrate that differences in support for legalization by education, region, and religion decline, that differences by political party increase, and that differences between whites and African Americans reverse direction. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings and by identifying promising directions for future research on this topic.

KEYWORDS:

• Marijuana
• public opinion
• social change

Notes

1. Alternative models with various age, period, and cohort intervals show similar results. For instance, we repeated the entire HAPC analysis (i.e., Tables 3 and 4) with five-year age groups, two-year periods, and eight-year cohorts. The substantive findings are largely unchanged (results available on request). Graphs of age by year and cohort by year change in support for legalization are also indicative of the robust period effects we observe here (available on request).

2. Unfortunately, the public version of the GSS does not indicate the specific state respondents live in. We suspect that the Mountain Census Division would appear more supportive of marijuana legalization if Utah could be separated from the remainder of the area.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Philip Schwadel

Philip Schwadel is a Professor of Sociology at University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Before coming to UNL, he received his PhD from the Pennsylvania State University and was a Postdoctoral Researcher with the National Study of Youth and Religion. His research focuses on the intersections between religion, social status, social contexts, and social change. In particular, much of his research examines the associations between social class and religiosity, with particular attention to how social contexts influence these relationships; as well as generational changes in religious and political behaviors and the correlates of religious and political behaviors. His research has been published in Social Forces, Social Science Research, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Sociology of Religion, and other reputable, peer-reviewed journals.

Christopher G. Ellison

Christopher G. Ellison holds a B.A. in Religion (1982) and a Ph.D. in Sociology (1991), both from Duke University. His research centers on several main issues: (1) the implications of religion and spirituality for mental and physical health and mortality risk; (2) religious variations in family life, with particular attention to intimate relationships and childrearing; (3) the role of religious institutions, practices, and values among racial and ethnic minority populations in the United States; (4) the influence of religious factors on political attitudes and policy preferences; and (5) public opinion surrounding issues of race, ethnicity, and immigration in the contemporary United States. Ellison has published two books and nearly 200 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on these and other topics; his work has appeared in American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, Social Science Research, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, and a wide range of other journals in sociology, psychology, public health, religious studies, family studies, gerontology, political science, and allied fields.