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Cross-sectional and longitudinal influences of stress mindset on adolescent depressive symptoms and cannabis use
Kendra L Wilson1, Bethany L Boettner2, Ping Bai1
1Department of Psychology, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.
Background And Objective:
A stress-is-enhancing mindset refers to viewing the nature of stress as enhancing rather than debilitating and has been linked to better mental health in response to stressors. We examined the cross-sectional and longitudinal link between stress mindset and two mental health outcomes, depressive symptoms and cannabis use, over the COVID-19 pandemic in a diverse sample of adolescents.
Design And Methods:
A community sample of adolescents completed measures assessing depressive symptoms, cannabis use, and intentions to use cannabis at three time points (T1: 2018-2020, N = 299, T2: 2020, N = 219, T3: 2021, N = 173). Participants completed the stress mindset measure at T2.
Results:
Cross-sectionally, a more stress-is-enhancing mindset was associated with fewer depressive symptoms and reduced intentions to use cannabis, which in turn were associated with less cannabis use. Longitudinally, a more stress-is-enhancing mindset was associated with fewer depressive symptoms and indirectly associated with less future cannabis use through behavioral intentions to use cannabis.
Conclusion:
This study establishes a stress-is-enhancing mindset as a protective factor against cannabis use and contributes to a growing literature that stress mindset is protective against depression, indicating that stress mindset may be an important protective factor even in the face of naturalistic, chronic stressors.
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