Objective: Cannabis use in college students has increased over time and is linked to negative consequences. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many students experienced greater stress, which could heighten cannabis use and related consequences. This study was designed to clarify motivations for cannabis use that may link pandemic-related stressors to…

For some athletes, dealing with pain is an everyday problem and can have a lasting impact long after their athletic careers. Athletes will use prescribed opioids and others will use alcohol or more illicit drugs such as cocaine or heroin for pain management. These drugs can be highly addictive and can lead to long term social, physical, emotional,…

Marijuana use in adolescence is associated with significant adverse outcomes. Romantic relationships are an important context for marijuana use. Prior research suggests a bi-directional relationship between marijuana use and relationship functioning; however, the complex interplay between adolescent relationship dynamics and marijuana use remains…

For reasons explored within the paper, adolescents excluded from mainstream education are more likely to use cannabis regularly. Research into the cannabis use (CU) of adolescents excluded from mainstream school in the United Kingdom (UK) is limited and seldom focuses on what students perceive as effective support. In this exploratory study,…

Neighborhood-level collective efficacy protects Black youth from substance use; however, neighborhood research does not account for the entirety of adolescents' exposure or their perceptions of space which may be critical to understanding the role of context in substance use. To address this limitation, the SPIN Project recruited 65 Black…

Objective: Food service employment is associated with substance use, risk of substance use disorders and various negative consequences. Previous research has not examined the substance use patterns of students employed in food service positions. Method: During Fall of 2018, 276 undergraduates completed an anonymous online survey regarding current…

Objective: The current study examined the mediating role of distress tolerance on the association between pain-related disability and addiction to opioids, past-month opioid use, and risky opioid use among an ethno-racially diverse sample of young adults with current pain. Methods: Participants were 141 undergraduate college students (78.7%…

Objective: The current study examined the unique predictive ability of tolerance of specific negative affective states in relation to frequency of past-month cannabis use and coping-oriented cannabis use motives. Participants: 416 undergraduates who reported past 30 day cannabis use (65.1% female; M[subscript age] = 19.46, SD = 2.56). Methods:…

Background/Aims: Adolescents who identify as nonbinary gender or as not heterosexual report higher levels of mental illness than their counterparts. Cannabis use is a commonly employed strategy to cope with mental illness symptoms among adolescents; however, cannabis use can have many deleterious health consequences for youth. Within the frame of…

The progression from prescription opioid (RXO) abuse to RXO addiction is not well understood in adolescents, nor is the progression from RXO addiction to heroin abuse. The purpose of this pilot study was to characterize the development of RXO drug abuse, RXO drug addiction, and heroin abuse in a small cohort of adolescents recovering from opioid…

This exploratory study was designed to examine the beliefs of youth users of alcohol and marijuana about the connections between their substance use and dating violence perpetration. Eighteen youth (ages 14-20 years old), who were primarily of Black or Hispanic race/ethnicity, participated in in-depth interviews about times when they had…

Early life stress (ES) significantly increases predisposition to psychopathologies. Cannabinoids may cause cognitive deficits and exacerbate the effects of ES. Nevertheless, the endocannabinoid system has been suggested as a therapeutic target for the treatment of stress- and anxiety-related disorders. Here we examined whether cannabinoids…

This study sought to identify trajectories of marijuana use in the Seattle Social Development Project (n = 808) sample from age 14 through 30, and to examine the extent to which individuals in these trajectories differed in their substance use problems, mental health, problem behavior, economic outcomes, and positive functioning at age 33. In…

Background: African Americans have one of the lowest smoking rates as teens yet have one of the highest smoking rates as adults. Approximately 40% of African Americans who have ever smoked started smoking between the ages of 18 and 21. Purpose: This study aimed to identify why African American young adults began smoking in young adulthood and what…

Although many student-athletes find participation in college sports rewarding, there are many who experience difficulties. Student-athletes face the same concerns that nonathletes do which include becoming independent, coping with uncertainty, finding a clear purpose, and clarifying values (Astin, 1977; Chickering, 1969; Farnsworth, 1966;…