Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms and Cannabis Misuse: The Explanatory Role of Cannabis Use Motives

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the unique explanatory role of cannabis use motives above the effects of each other, for the relationship between obsessive-compulsive symptomatology and different aspects of cannabis misuse among young adults. The transitional years of young adulthood are characterized by new opportunities for experimentation as well as novel external stressors. Collectively, this makes this developmental epoch a sensitive time for manifestations of cannabis misuse. Methods: Bivariate correlations were conducted to examine the association between obsessive-compulsive symptomatology and risky cannabis use, cannabis use problems, and the average quantity of cannabis used per occasion among a young ethno-racially diverse sample of college students with the past year history of cannabis use (N = 177, 68.95% female, Mage = 21.51, SD = 4.24). Next, multiple mediation analyses were conducted to examine the unique explanatory role of cannabis use motives (e.g., enhancement, conformity, coping, social, and expansion) for the association between the obsessive-compulsive symptoms and cannabis misuse variables which showed significant correlation with these symptoms at the bivariate level. Results: Obsessive-compulsive symptoms were significantly correlated with risky cannabis use (r = .19; p = .02), but not cannabis use problems or the average quantity of cannabis used per occasion. Conducting the multiple mediation for the relationship with the significant bivariate correlation, coping motives significantly explained the relationship between obsessive-compulsive symptoms and risky cannabis use (b = 0.04, SE = 0.02, 95% Bootstrapped CI [0.003, 0.10], Completely Standardized Indirect Effects = 0.07), after controlling for the variance accounted for by problematic alcohol use and smoking status. This indirect effect was not significant after adding anxiety and depressive symptoms as covariates to the model. Conclusions: These findings are discussed in terms of the development of specialized treatments to specifically target cannabis use coping motives among individuals with comorbid obsessive-compulsive disorder and cannabis misuse.