Unraveling the Emotional Landscape of Cannabis Use

The multistage model of substance use proposes that reinforcement mechanisms and motives for use change as individuals develop substance use disorders, with positive reinforcement driving substance use when substance use disorder symptoms are absent/mild and negative reinforcement becoming dominant when substance use disorder symptoms are more severe. We aimed to determine whether event-level associations between affect, cannabis use, motives for use, and heaviness of use were moderated by cannabis use problem severity, consistent with the multistage model of substance use. We used EMA data (2 observations per day for 14 days) from 571 young adult females who regularly used cannabis. The sample included a majority sexual minority women and gender diverse individuals (77.6%). Elevated anxious affect was concurrently associated with coping motives for cannabis use and longer duration of intoxication at the event-level but only among those with more severe CU problems. Further, positive affect was concurrently associated with a higher likelihood of endorsing enhancement motives for the full sample, but this association was stronger for those with fewer CU problems. However, many other associations between affect and cannabis use outcomes were not moderated by severity of CU problems. Some findings were consistent with what would be expected based on the multistage model. However, results also suggest that positive reinforcement may continue to drive cannabis use among those with more severe CU problems which is not consistent with what would be expected based on the multistage model.