Emotion Dysregulation Moderates the Association Between Stress and Problematic Marijuana Use

Abstract

Objective. Marijuana is the most widely used illicit substance in the United States and in 2018 alone, an estimated 40.3 million adults reported using marijuana in the past year. This is concerning since growing research suggests that marijuana use is associated with adverse health and life outcomes, such as mental health issues, and cognitive impairment. Thus, determining factors that influence marijuana use-related problems is critical for understanding how to effectively implement prevention, intervention, and treatment efforts. Because research has proposed that emotion dysregulation is a transdiagnostic risk factor for substance use and addiction, the investigation of emotion regulation capabilities in marijuana users is warranted. Furthermore, since prior studies suggest that stress may lead to greater marijuana use-related problems, additional research into how emotion dysregulation may affect these relationships is needed. Thus, the current study examines how emotion dysregulation moderates the association between stress and problematic marijuana use in adults through an online survey. Methods. 852 adults reporting any lifetime marijuana use completed an online survey through Qualtrics. Participants completed a brief demographic questionnaire and were asked to report their past 30-day use of marijuana, alcohol, nicotine, and illicit substances. To assess past month problematic marijuana use, participants completed the Marijuana Problem Scale (MPS). To assess emotion dysregulation, participants completed the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). Participants completed the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) and the Holmes-Rahe Life Stress Inventory (H-RLSI) to assess past month perceived stress and past year stressful life events, respectively. We investigated the association between scores on the DERS, PSS, and H-RLSI with scores on the MPS. Additionally, we conducted hierarchical multiple linear regression models to test whether emotion dysregulation, stress, and their interaction predicted problematic marijuana use. Results. Scores on the DERS (r = .53, p < .001), PSS (r = .13, p < .001), and H-RLSI (r = .32, p < .001) were significantly correlated with scores on the MPS. Additionally, emotion dysregulation (B = .32, p < .001), stressful life events (B = .21, p < .001), and their interaction (B = .07, p = .003) were significant predictors of problematic marijuana use. Finally, emotion dysregulation (B = .44, p < .001), perceived stress (B = -.18, p < .001), and their interaction (B = -.06, p = .04) were significant predictors of problematic marijuana use. Conclusion. These findings indicate that when examined separately, greater emotion dysregulation, experiencing more stressful life events in the past year, and experiencing more perceived stress in the past month were associated with greater problematic marijuana use in the past month. However, when examining the moderating role of emotion dysregulation, more stressful life events and less perceived stress predicted greater problematic marijuana use, and these associations were stronger at higher levels of emotion dysregulation. Overall, these results suggest that emotion dysregulation and greater stress may be risk factors for developing problematic marijuana use, and could be possible targets for prevention, intervention, and treatment efforts.