Date of Award

5-1-2022

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Psychology

Program

Clinical Psychology

Content Description

1 online resource (v, 97 pages) : illustrations (some color)

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Mitch Earleywine

Committee Members

James Boswell, Drew Anderson

Keywords

Cannabis, Negative Affect, Recreational drug use, Marijuana abuse, Expectation (Psychology), Mood (Psychology)

Subject Categories

Clinical Psychology

Abstract

Substance use disorders and affective disturbances often covary. One commonly endorsed expectancy for substance use is stress relief, and using substances to cope with negative affect (NA) often covaries with greater use and problems. While strong evidence of these relations exists, NA might bias reporting of substance use due to hindered recall processes. This hypothesis warrants further research, as accurate reporting of substance-related variables is crucial in both research and treatment settings. The present study examined the influence of NA on reporting of cannabis variables using an affect-induction paradigm. Over 1,000 individuals recruited from Amazon’s MTurk participated. After reporting demographics and baseline affect, participants were randomly assigned to either a NA induction or control condition. Follow-up measures assessed post-induction affect, cannabis use, and distress tolerance (DT). Results revealed that the NA induction task significantly increased NA and decreased positive affect relative to the control condition. Participants assigned to the NA induction reported greater negative cannabis expectancies and more cannabis problems. Similarly, those with greater NA across both induction conditions reported higher average intoxication, as well as greater negative expectancies and more problems. Cannabis use and cannabis problems appeared positively related. We also found a significant moderating crossover effect of DT, such that at high, but not low, levels of NA, DT appeared positively related to cannabis problems. Overall, these results partially support the hypothesis that NA can influence reporting of cannabis-related variables. These results also corroborate extant findings that significant positive relations exist between cannabis use and cannabis problems, as well as that DT appears to influence the link between NA and cannabis problems. Future research should continue to assess for the influence of NA in reporting of cannabis variables and focus on increasing DT to mitigate cannabis problems.

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