Abstract
African American adolescents use marijuana at higher rates and may be more vulnerable to psychosocial risk factors for marijuana use, including depression, post-traumatic stress, and having substance-using peers, compared to Caucasian adolescents. Little is known about how these factors contribute to African American adolescents’ motives for marijuana use. This study examined the roles of depressive and post-traumatic stress symptoms and substance-using peers on marijuana use motives among African American adolescents and emerging adults and whether these motives predicted marijuana use. Findings suggest that identifying motives for marijuana use may help improve approaches to reduce use among this population.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (K01DA024700) to Sylvie Mrug. The National Institutes of Health had no role in the study design, collection, analysis, or interpretation of data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. This project was also supported in part by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under T71MC24209 University of Alabama at Birmingham Leadership Education in Adolescent Health Training Program. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government. No authors have potential conflicts of interest. There are no relevant financial disclosures to report for any author.
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.