Just Say No: The Relationship between Conformity Motives, Refusal Self-Efficacy, and Cannabis-Related Consequences

Cannabis use on college campuses is common, with more than half of students reporting use within the past year (Schulenberg, et. al, 2020). Additionally, a 2017 study found that approximately 90% of past-month cannabis users reported having experienced at least one negative consequence (Pearson, Liese, & Dvorak, 2017). Numerous studies have evaluated the association between conformity motives and cannabis-related consequences such as driving under the influence or poor academic performance (Glodosky & Cuttler, 2019; Lee, Neighbors, & Woods, 2007). Research suggests that while those users who endorse conformity motives generally report lower use and frequency (Zvolensky et al., 2007), they may be at high risk of experiencing negative cannabis-related consequences (Buckner, Walukevich, & Lewis, 2019). One construct that has been shown to predict lower cannabis-related problems in young adults is refusal self-efficacy (Papinczak, Connor, Harnett, & Gullo, 2018; Hayaki et al., 2011). Refusal self-efficacy in relation to cannabis use is one’s belief that they will be able to resist, refuse, or turn down cannabis when offered. As refusal self-efficacy is prominent in conformity-driven situations, it is important to understand how refusal self-efficacy may mediate the relationship between conformity motives and cannabis-related consequences. As this relationship has not yet been tested we aim to examine this mediational relationship. We hypothesized that refusal self-efficacy mediates the relationship between motives and cannabis-related problems, such that refusal self-efficacy explains the preexisting relationship between conformity motives and problems related to cannabis use. Participants included 567 undergraduate students (49.02% White, 77.21% female). Cannabis use prevalence among the sample was 61.25% lifetime, 36.53% within the past 6 months, and 28.92% within the past 30 days. The relationship between conformity motives, refusal self-efficacy, and problems was examined using structural equation modeling in STATA Version 15.1. Results found that The relationship between conformity motives and cannabis-related problems was partially mediated by cannabis refusal self-efficacy. The direct path from conformity motives to problems was significant and positive (B = .167, SE = .063), indicating a competitive mediation (Zhao, Lynch, & Chen, 2010). The standardized regression coefficient between conformity motives and refusal self-efficacy was statistically significant (B = -.337, SE = .053), as was the standardized regression coefficient between refusal self-efficacy and cannabis-related problems (B = -.411, SE = .06). We tested the significance of the indirect effect using bootstrapping procedures. Unstandardized indirect effects were computed for each of the 5,000 bootstrapped samples. The bootstrapped unstandardized indirect effect was .357, and the 95% confidence interval ranged from .180, .533. Thus, the indirect effect was statistically significant. This indicates that part of the reason that those with conformity motives have cannabis-related problems is due to their inability to refuse cannabis when offered. However, due to the fact that this was a partial mediation, there are other potential mediators to be accounted for, such as social anxiety (Buckner & Schmidt, 2008).