Marijuana Use and Psychological Intimate Partner Aggression Perpetration: The Moderating Effect of COVID-19 Stress

Myriad findings indicate alcohol use is a contributing cause of intimate partner aggression (IPA) perpetration (e.g., Leonard & Quigley, 2017). Additionally, growing evidence also suggests that marijuana use is also associated with IPA perpetration (e.g., Cafferky et al., 2018). However, research examining the specific association between marijuana use and psychological IPA perpetration is in its infancy and wrought with methodical limitations. The present study aimed to address these conceptual and methodological gaps by examining the relation between the distal (i.e., non-acute) effects of marijuana use and IPA perpetration in the context of a global pandemic (i.e., COVID-19). This study used data collected for a larger investigation on alcohol consumption, COVID-19 stress, and IPA perpetration (Parrott et al., 2022). The sample included 519 participants recruited in April 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 shelter in place restrictions. To ascertain the effect of the pandemic on variables of interest, participants completed questionnaires about their frequency of pre-pandemic and post-onset of pandemic marijuana use and psychological IPA perpetration and their level of COVID-19 stress. Negative binomial regression analyses indicated a higher frequency of pre-pandemic and post-onset marijuana use was significantly associated with greater pre-pandemic and post-pandemic psychological IPA perpetration, respectively. Findings also showed that the frequency of post-onset marijuana use and post-onset psychological IPA perpetration was significantly stronger among those with higher COVID-19 stress compared to those with lower COVID-19 stress. While an increase in pre-pandemic and post-onset marijuana use was significantly associated with higher post-onset psychological IPA perpetration, COVID-19 did not moderate the relation between the change in the use and post-onset psychological IPA perpetration. The findings of this study highlight the complex, multivariate etiology of the association between marijuana use and psychological IPA perpetration that merits further examination.