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Being Blunt About Marijuana: Parent Communication About Marijuana with Their Emerging Adult Children

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Abstract

While research suggests that parents continue to influence students’ marijuana use after matriculation to college, there is limited data examining how parents communicate about marijuana use and what impact parent marijuana communication has on college student outcomes. The aim of the current study is to investigate the types of parent marijuana messages that college students receive and the relationship between parent communication and students’ marijuana attitudes and behaviors. Students (N = 506) completed a survey assessing marijuana approval, use, negative consequences, and parent communication. A factor analysis of parent communication items yielded three factors: risk communication, permissive communication, and marijuana use communication. Risk communication was the most common form of communication. In multivariate models, risk communication was associated with increased odds of a student remaining abstinent but not with frequency of marijuana use or negative consequences. Greater permissive communication was associated with more approving student attitudes, greater odds of non-abstinence, more frequent use in the past year, and more negative consequences. These findings highlight the need to consider the different types of messages parents deliver when designing interventions aimed at engaging parents in marijuana prevention efforts.

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Notes

  1. Our classification system was based, in part, on how marijuana users typically self-identified. For example, in the current sample, all students who reported that they self-identified as a moderate or heavy marijuana user also reported using marijuana at least twice a month.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by grant R21AA021870-01 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism at the National Institutes of Health. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIAAA or the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, and Health, Medicine, and Society Program, Lehigh University, 17 Memorial Drive East, Chandler-Ullmann Hall, Bethlehem, PA, 18015, USA

    Lucy E. Napper

  2. Department of Psychology, Loyola Marymount University, 1 LMU Drive, Suite 4700, Los Angeles, CA, 90045, USA

    Nicole M. Froidevaux & Joseph W. LaBrie

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  1. Lucy E. Napper
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  2. Nicole M. Froidevaux
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Correspondence to Lucy E. Napper.

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The universities’ Institutional Review Boards approved all measures and procedures prior to data collection.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Napper, L.E., Froidevaux, N.M. & LaBrie, J.W. Being Blunt About Marijuana: Parent Communication About Marijuana with Their Emerging Adult Children. Prev Sci 17, 882–891 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-016-0681-0

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