Is pre-college interpersonal trauma associated with cannabis use?

Abstract

Objective To examine the prevalence and correlates of lifetime cannabis use (i.e., experimental [use 1-5 times] and non-experimental [use ≥ 6 times]) in relation to interpersonal trauma (IPT) above and beyond relevant covariates. Participants A large (n = 9,889) representative sample of college students at an urban university in the southeastern part of the United States Methods Participants were 4 cohorts of first-year college students who completed measures of demographics, cannabis, alcohol, nicotine, and IPT. Associations were estimated using multinomial logistic regressions. Results The prevalence of lifetime cannabis use was 28.1% and 17.4% for non-experimental and experimental cannabis use, respectively. IPT was significantly associated with experimental and non-experimental cannabis use above and beyond effects of sex, race, cohort, alcohol, and nicotine. Conclusions Results show that cannabis use is prevalent among college students and is associated with IPT above and beyond associations with sex, race, and other substance use.