When Chilling Out Casts Doubt: Exploring the Temporal Associations Among Anxiety, Depression, and Cannabis Use in Emerging Adulthood

Research shows that both cannabis use and emotional problems (anxiety and depression) tend to peak in emerging adulthood. There is a relative paucity of research examining the temporal associations between cannabis use and emotional problems among emerging adults. Accordingly, this multi-wave longitudinal study examined three competing models of temporal precedence: the vulnerability model (negative emotions precede cannabis use); the scar model (cannabis use precedes negative emotions), and the reciprocal model (bidirectional associations between cannabis use and negative emotions). A sample of 299 North American emerging adults ( M age = 23.69 years, 58% female) completed three waves of survey measures and cross-lagged panel models were run to evaluate how anxiety and depression were related to both cannabis use and related problems across the 1-month study period. Regarding anxiety symptoms, some support was found for the vulnerability model, in that anxiety preceded cannabis problems across some waves. No directional or reciprocal associations between anxiety and cannabis use were found. As for depression symptoms, there was support for reciprocal links between cannabis problems and depression across waves. However, consistent with the anxiety-related findings, no directional or reciprocal associations between depression and cannabis use were found. The scientific and practical implications of these findings are discussed.