Brief individual interventions addressing substance use motivations and expectancies have been successful in reducing adolescent cannabis use ; however, research on preventing initiation through brief intervention and among JIY is nascent. Extension of expectancies research with JIY samples is necessary, particularly using prospective data and examining the role of positive expectancies and cannabis use outside detention when there is greater opportunity for use. Studies of school-based and general adolescent samples have also demonstrated the importance of understanding reasons for and protective factors against cannabis grow lights use. Data from the Monitoring the Future Survey examining past 10-year trends demonstrates adolescents cite more coping-related reasons than any other motivations for use . Individual factors that positively influence social cognition and behaviors appear to buffer against substance use among early adolescents in public school , and higher self-esteem is associated with less substance use among Black adolescents exposed to community violence and with high family stress.
Enhanced emotion regulation skills, which are influenced by social cognitive factors , are also protective against cannabis use initiation among Black adolescents . Justice-involved youth, who experience high rates of trauma, poverty, stigma and discrimination, may cite multiple reasons to use cannabis as a coping strategy, however, research in this area is lacking. Understanding how individual level, substance-related attitudes, beliefs and social cognitions influence JIY’s cannabis use, while accounting for known factors associated with increased likelihood of use, such as psychiatric symptoms , other substance use , and externalizing behaviors, is key to shaping the development of feasible systems-embedded brief substance use prevention interventions. Identifying individual social cognitive factors that might protect against cannabis use initiation in first-time JIY allows incorporation of a strengths versus deficit framework; a theoretical approach still largely lacking in the study of cannabis use and juvenile justice. In this prospective cohort study of first-time JIY, we aimed to understand rates of early onset cannabis use and individual level factors associated with early onset use and new initiation in the 12 months after first court contact.
We hypothesized more psychiatric symptoms, other substance use, pro-cannabis use beliefs, attitudes and intentions, and lower self-concept and less self-control would be associated with early onset use and new initiation over follow-up. Three variables were derived from youth baseline self-report and 3 follow-up assessments over a 12-month period . Youth who had no lifetime use at baseline but reported cannabis use during the 12-month follow-up period were coded as new initiation. Descriptive statistics were examined at baseline. Next, we determined factors associated with lifetime cannabis use reported at baseline using bivariable measures of association . Third, among youth who reported lifetime cannabis grow tent use at baseline, we compared those who did and did not report early onset use at baseline. Fourth, we conducted modified Poisson regression to determine the independent associations between baseline factors and two primary outcomes: lifetime cannabis use reported in the entire sample, and early onset use in the subset of participants who reported baseline lifetime cannabis use. Covariates were selected for inclusion in the multivariable models based on the standard cut-off rule of p < 0.05 in bivariable analyses except age, gender, and race/ethnicity, which were included in all models.
We created final multivariable models using a sequential backwards selection approach, in which variables with the largest p-values were removed sequentially, with the final model having the lowest AIC. Next, among youth who did not report lifetime cannabis use at baseline , we compared baseline factors associated with cannabis use initiation over follow-up using the same methods as described above. We then conducted a survival analysis using Cox proportional hazards regression to determine baseline factors associated with time to cannabis use initiation among youth who reported no lifetime cannabis use at baseline. We estimated the length of follow-up by calculating the difference between the interview date during which the first instance of cannabis use was reported and the interview date of the baseline survey.All variables significant at p < 0.05 in bivariable survival analyses were included in the multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression model; we also included age, gender, and race/ethnicity and obtained a final model using a sequential backwards selection procedure, as above.