The effects tailored interventions on cannabis use motives

Background: The motives for cannabis affect on cannabis use and cannabis use consequences. Coping with stress is among the frequent motives for cannabis use. However, non stressed youth may use cannabis for self-enhancing motives like boosting confidence. Both motives are associated with higher frequency of cannabis use and more negative consequences (e.g., effects on schoolwork quality). Interventions targeting these distinctive motives may need to be tailored to assist youth trying to reduce cannabis use. The purposes of this study were: to examine the effect of cannabis use interventions on the change in motives of use; and whether motives for use are associated with hours per week using cannabis. Methods: Participants were from a cross national study including US and Canadian youth (n= 781). Participants included in the current analysis were from two Canadian Universities (n = 397, 54% female, median age = 21) were randomized into either the Cannabis eCHECKUP TO GO or Healthy Stress Management (HSM) intervention. Both interventions were administrated online and assessed at baseline and at a 4- to 6-week follow-up. Eligible youth reported using cannabis more than once a week and wanted to reduce their cannabis use. The 19 items to the question “what do you like about cannabis” were used as an assessment of motives for use (e.g., I feel more courageous, I feel more confident, cannabis helps me reduce stress, cannabis helps me sleep). Confirmatory Factor Analysis showed that a 2-factor model of cannabis use motives (self-confidence and stress-coping) fit the data adequately (CFI = 0.795, RMSEA [90% CI] = .063 [.057, .069]) after removing 2 poorly fitting items. Results: Across conditions self-confidence motives (T1: eCHECKUP condition M = 4.05(2.55), HSM condition M = 4.13(2.43); T2: eCHECKUP condition M = 4.09(2.50), HSM condition M = 4.36(2.28)) were endorse less than stress-coping motives (T1: eCHECKUP condition M = 6.48(1.92), HSM condition M = 6.25(1.78); T2: eCHECKUP condition M = 6.20(1.99), HSM condition M = 6.32(1.96)). Stress-coping motives were significantly correlated with the time spent high (hours a week) (T1 r= .21, T2: r=.26). A repeated measures MANOVA showed a significant interaction between time and intervention condition for the stress-coping motives only (F(1)= 4.08, p = .04). Participants in the Healthy Stress Management condition reported a significant decrease in the amount of stress-coping motives at the follow-up. Conclusions: These results demonstrate that motives of cannabis use can change over the course of a short online intervention for students seeking to reduce their use. In particular, the Healthy Stress Management condition helped participants reduce their stress-coping motives at T2. Neither intervention affected self confidence motives in the short term. These may be harder to address and may fuel continued use over time, even for youth hoping to change.